Synchronization Primitives: Difference between revisions

[[Spinlock|Spinlocks]] try to address the same problem of [[Mutual Exclusion]], but without relying on a scheduler infrastructure to make the process sleep if the resource is busy. Instead, a spinlock will keep checking the value until it has changed and usually relies on some atomic <tt>test_and_set</tt> instruction on the CPU to perform its task (See [http://developer.intel.com/design/pentium4/manuals/index_new.htm Intel Manuals] to see how <tt>xchg</tt> can be used to mimic <tt>test_and_set</tt> virtual operation).