Java Multithreading and Parallel Programming Masterclass - The Volatile Keyword

The lecture discusses thread visibility issues in concurrent programming, focusing on the volatile keyword. It explains how memory and cache work, highlighting the delay in data visibility across threads due to caching. The volatile keyword ensures direct access to main memory, preventing cache-related inconsistencies but at a performance cost. A Java example illustrates the concept, showing how volatile can solve visibility problems in multithreaded applications.

Explain how cache memory improves CPU performance.

What happens when one thread writes to a shared variable while another thread reads it?

Describe the problem of change visibility across threads.

What is the purpose of the volatile keyword in programming?

How does marking a variable as volatile affect its read and write operations?

What are the trade-offs of using the volatile keyword in terms of performance?

In the provided Java example, how do the two threads interact with the shared variable?