Wait-Free
A progress guarantee under which every participating operation completes within a bounded number of its own steps.
Concurrency Context
Wait-free algorithms provide the strongest common non-blocking progress guarantee: every participating operation completes within a bounded number of its own steps. That property is attractive in real-time and high-reliability designs, but it is usually harder to achieve than lock-free system-wide progress.
Progress Boundary
Using no lock is insufficient to call an algorithm wait-free. A bounded completion guarantee must hold for each participant, including under interference from others.
Related Concurrency Concepts
- Lock-Free
- Compare-and-Swap
- Real-Time System
- Starvation