To compare old and new latch mechanisms, I found useful the following illustration. Since it is hard for us, humans, to visualize milli- and microseconds, imagine “time microscope” that zooms in timed events one million times.
Alternatively, just imagine contemporary Oracle software running on 1950th style hardware.
Such microscope will magnify the microsecond to second. One real “second” will transform to one million seconds. It takes more than 11 days. Light will travel at sonic speed. Lunar rocket will crawl like snail.
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Latch, mutex and beyond 