Definition:
- Used to protect access to the shared variable in a Critical Section to ensure that only one thread can modify it at a time
- Protect a critical section by:
acquire()a lockrelease()the lock
- Implemented via Atomic Instructions
- It requires busy waiting:
- this lock is therefore called Spinlock
- Unlike traditional locks (such as mutexes), a spinlock “spins” in a loop, repeatedly checking if the lock is available, rather than putting the thread to sleep.