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Is My Spin Lock Implementation Correct and Optimal?

This document discusses a beginSpinLock function that implements a spin lock mechanism to lock access to a shared resource. The function first checks if the lock is available and if not, it burns the thread's time slice by looping for a short period (1 or 2 milliseconds) before rechecking the lock. This spinning avoids the overhead of blocking the thread and releasing the CPU. The document warns that if not implemented carefully, a spin lock can cause livelock where the CPU is constantly busy spinning but no progress is made. It also provides a link to additional resources on implementing lightweight mutexes.

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waldo mher
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27 views1 page

Is My Spin Lock Implementation Correct and Optimal?

This document discusses a beginSpinLock function that implements a spin lock mechanism to lock access to a shared resource. The function first checks if the lock is available and if not, it burns the thread's time slice by looping for a short period (1 or 2 milliseconds) before rechecking the lock. This spinning avoids the overhead of blocking the thread and releasing the CPU. The document warns that if not implemented carefully, a spin lock can cause livelock where the CPU is constantly busy spinning but no progress is made. It also provides a link to additional resources on implementing lightweight mutexes.

Uploaded by

waldo mher
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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void beginSpinLock(lock)

{
if(lock) loopFor(1 milliseconds);
else
{
lock = true;
return;
}

if(lock) loopFor(2 milliseconds);


else
{
lock = true;
return;
}

// important is that the part above never


// cause the thread to sleep.
// It is "burning" the time slice of this thread.
// Hopefully for good.

// some implementations fallback to OS lock mechanism


// after a few tries
if(lock) return beginLock(lock);
else
{
lock = true;
return;
}
}
If your implementation is not careful, you can fall on livelock, spending all CPU on the lock
mechanism.

Also see:

https://preshing.com/20120226/roll-your-own-lightweight-mutex/
Is my spin lock implementation correct and optimal?

Summary:

Deadlock: situation where nobody progress, doing nothing (sleeping, waiting etc..). CPU
usage will be low;

Livelock: situation where nobody progress, but CPU is spent on the lock mechanism and
not on your calculation;

Starvation: situation where one procress never gets the chance to run; by pure bad luck or
by some of its property (low priority, for example);

Spinlock: technique of avoiding the cost waiting the lock to be freed.

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