OS Independent Atomic Operations 1.00 revision 1

OS Independent Atomic Operations is a project that intends to develop an OS-independent atomic operations macro library with a common API for the C programming language as a cross-platform alternative to the uncoordinated efforts by OS developers.
As multi-core CPUs and multi-processor computer systems become more and more common, efficient synchronisation between concurrent execution units becomes more important. Atomic operations, that is operations which cannnot be interrupted, are needed to implement semaphores, reference counters and lock-free algorithms.
Operating systems generally provide atomic operation macros but there is no common API and no coordination between vendors and developers of different systems. Thus library and application developers are facing a dilemma. They can take advantage of one of the existing APIs for atomic operations but their software will then be tied to a particular operating system.
Enhancements:
- The initial release contains the Common AO API draft and a skeleton macro library.
- To complete the macros, the project will need contributors with inline assembly skills for various CPU architectures.