Resource contention

In computer science, resource contention is a conflict over access to a shared resource such as random access memory, disk storage, cache memory, internal busses or external network devices.

Resolving resource contention problems is one of the basic functions of operating systems. Various low-level mechanisms can be used to aid this, including locks, semaphores, mutexes and queues.

Failure to properly resolve resource contention problems may result in a number of problems, including deadlock, livelock and thrashing.

See also