n A state is safe iff there exist a sequence {P1..Pn} where each Pi is allocated all of its needed resources to be run to completion u ie: we can always run all the processes to completion from a safe state n The safety algorithm is the part that determines if a state is safe n Initialization: u all processes are said to be “unfinished” u set the work vector to the amount resources available: W(i) = V(i) for all i;