Windows Thread Synchronization in User Mode

1 The Interlocked Family of Functions

    LONG InterlockedExchangeAdd( PLONG plAddend, LONG lIncrement );  ....

2 volatile

3 Critical Sections

    CRITICAL_SECTION   

    VOID InitializeCriticalSection(PCRITICAL_SECTION pcs);    

    BOOL InitializeCriticalSectionAndSpinCount(PCRITICAL_SECTION pcs, DWORD dwSpinCount);
    
    DWORD SetCriticalSectionSpinCount(PCRITICAL_SECTION pcs, DWORD dwSpinCount);

    If you call this function while running on a single processor machine, 

    the dwSpinCount parameter is ignored and the count is always set to 0.

    This is good because setting a spin count on a single-processor machine 

    is useless: the thread owning the resource can't relinquish it if another 

    thread is spinning.
 
    ......