Game Interpretation of the Deadlock Avoidance Problem
The deadlock avoidance problem may be defined
informally as the determination, from some a 
priori information about the processes, resources, operating
system, etc., of the "safe situations" which 
may be realized without endangering the smooth running
of the system.  When each process specifies its 
future needs by a flowchart of need-defined steps, a global
approach to the phenomenon and its in terpretation 
as a game between the operating system and the processes
allows formalization of risk and safety concepts. 
 The bipartite graph representation of this game may
then be used to construct explicitly the set of safe 
states and to study their properties.
CACM October, 1977
Devillers, R.
