Tidex - A Mutual Exclusion Lock

Several basic mutual exclusion lock algorithms are known, with one of the simplest being the Ticket Lock. We present a new mutual exclusion lock with properties similar to the Ticket Lock but using atomic_exchange () instead of atomic_fetch_add () that can be more efficient on systems without a native instruction for atomic_fetch_add (), or in which the native instruction for atomic_exchange () is faster than the one for atomic_fetch_add (). Similarly to the Ticket Lock, our lock has small memory foot print, is extremely simple, respects FIFO order, and provides starvation freedom in architectures that implement atomic_exchange () as a single instruction, like x86.