Operating Systems: Concurrent and Distributed Software Design

13.3. System structure and IPC without shared memory

In the model of system structure where there is no shared memory, each process runs in a separate address space. There is no shared data and we cannot therefore build passive structures independent of processes to encapsulate shared data. Figure 13.3 shows the same functionality as Figure 13.2, but now for a system without shared memory. The IPC implementation in the operating system must provide a mechanism for a process to send some data to another process and for the intended recipient to synchronize with its arrival. For example, in Figure 13.3, a client process will send a request for an operation to be done on its behalf by a server process and, in due course, will wait for the result ...