Mutex waits. Part II. “Cursor: Pin S” in Oracle 11.2 _mutex_wait_scheme=0. Steps out of shadow.

I would like to describe how Oracle versions 11.2.0.1-11.2.0.2.1 waited for mutexes. This algorithm also appears to be used in post-11.2.0.2.2 PSUs and new 11.2.0.3 patchset as _mutex_wait_scheme=0.

My previous post demonstrated that before version 11.2:

• “Cursor: pin S” was pure wait for CPU. Long “cursor: pin S” waits indicated CPU starvation.
• Mutex contention was almost invisible to Oracle Wait Interface
• Spin time to acquire mutex was accounted as CPU time. It was service time, not waiting time.

Things changed. Mutex waits in Oracle 11.2 significantly differ from previous versions. Contemporary mutex waits are not CPU aggressive anymore, completely visible to Oracle Wait Interface and highly tunable.