site_archiver@lists.apple.com Delivered-To: darwin-kernel@lists.apple.com On Wed, 16 Nov 2011 07:10:13 -0800 Michael Crawford <mdcrawford@gmail.com> wrote:

It will also slow everything else down in the system, even if not CPU-bound, because all the tasks that depend on spinlock acquisition are designed with the assumption that it never takes very long to acquire one.

i believe this is why apple strongly suggests that you do not use spin locks. the manual says "should be used only in places where a mutex cannot be used". the only reason to use a spinlock would be taking interrupts directly which isnt very common (or suggested). even "interrupt handlers" in darwin run in a sleep-safe context. _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Darwin-kernel mailing list (Darwin-kernel@lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/darwin-kernel/site_archiver%40lists.a... This email sent to site_archiver@lists.apple.com