Priority inversion is a form of indefinite postponement which is common in multitasking, preemptive executives with shared resources. Priority inversion occurs when a high priority tasks requests access to shared resource which is currently allocated to low priority task. The high priority task must block until the low priority task releases the resource. This problem is exacerbated when the low priority task is prevented from executing by one or more medium priority tasks. Because the low priority task is not executing, it cannot complete its interaction with the resource and release that resource. The high priority task is effectively prevented from executing by lower priority tasks.
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