By Asaf Shelly
Locks are a problematic mechanism because they can potentially slow down the system. Sometimes you just need them, usually when working with low-level API and the lower levels of an infrastructure.

There are four basic ways for using a lock:
* Spin-lock : will retain the CPU core until a condition is met
* Atomic Operation : single operation using a predefined CPU Op-Code
* Kernel Lock : such as MUTEX which can be automatically unlocked if the thread terminates
* Fast-Lock : such as Critical Section which is light-weight and is more sensitive to bugs

Locks are implemented internally by either : preventing tasks from switching / disabling Interrupts / Internally using an Atomic Operation.

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