Is there a problem with multiple threads using the same integer memory location between pthreads in a C program without any synchronization utilities?
To simplify the issue,
Only one thread will write to the integer
Multiple threads will read the integer
This pseudo-C illustrates what I am thinking
void thread_main(int *a) {
//wait for something to finish
//dereference 'a', make decision based on its value
}
int value = 0;
for (int i=0; i<10; i++)
pthread_create(NULL,NULL,thread_main,&value);
}
// do something
value = 1;
I assume it is safe, since an integer occupies one processor word, and reading/writing to a word should be the most atomic of operations, right?
Your pseudo-code is NOT safe.
Although accessing a word-sized integer is indeed atomic, meaning that you'll never see an intermediate value, but either "before write" or "after write", this isn't enough for your outlined algorithm.
You are relying on the relative order of the write to a and making some other change that wakes the thread. This is not an atomic operation and is not guaranteed on modern processors.
You need some sort of memory fence to prevent write reordering. Otherwise it's not guaranteed that other threads EVER see the new value.
Unlike java where you explicitly start a thread, posix threads start executing immediatelly.
So there is no guarantee that the value you set to 1 in main function (assuming that is what you refer in your pseudocode) will be executed before or after the threads try to access it.
So while it is safe to read the integer concurrently, you need to do some synchronization if you need to write to the value in order to be used by the threads.
Otherwise there is no guarantee what is the value they will read (in order to act depending on the value as you note).
You should not be making assumptions on multithreading e.g.that there is some processing in each thread befor accessing the value etc.
There are no guarantees
I wouldn't count on it. The compiler may emit code that assumes it knows what the value of 'value' is at any given time in a CPU register without re-loading it from memory.
EDIT:
Ben is correct (and I'm an idiot for saying he wasn't) that there is the possibility that the cpu will re-order the instructions and execute them down multiple pipelines at the same time. This means that the value=1 could possibly get set before the pipeline performing "the work" finished. In my defense (not a full idiot?) I have never seen this happen in real life and we do have an extensive thread library and we do run exhaustive long term tests and this pattern is used throughout. I would have seen it if it were happening, but none of our tests ever crash or produce the wrong answer. But... Ben is correct, the possibility exists. It is probably happening all the time in our code, but the re-ordering is not setting flags early enough that the consumers of the data protected by the flags can use the data before its finished. I will be changing our code to include barriers, because there is no guarantee that this will continue to work in the wild. I believe the correct solution is similar to this:
Threads that read the value:
...
if (value)
{
__sync_synchronize(); // don't pipeline any of the work until after checking value
DoSomething();
}
...
The thread that sets the value:
...
DoStuff()
__sync_synchronize(); // Don't pipeline "setting value" until after finishing stuff
value = 1; // Stuff Done
...
That being said, I found this to be a simple explanation of barriers.
COMPILER BARRIER
Memory barriers affect the CPU. Compiler barriers affect the compiler. Volatile will not keep the compiler from re-ordering code. Here for more info.
I believe you can use this code to keep gcc from rearranging the code during compile time:
#define COMPILER_BARRIER() __asm__ __volatile__ ("" ::: "memory")
So maybe this is what should really be done?
#define GENERAL_BARRIER() do { COMPILER_BARRIER(); __sync_synchronize(); } while(0)
Threads that read the value:
...
if (value)
{
GENERAL_BARRIER(); // don't pipeline any of the work until after checking value
DoSomething();
}
...
The thread that sets the value:
...
DoStuff()
GENERAL_BARRIER(); // Don't pipeline "setting value" until after finishing stuff
value = 1; // Stuff Done
...
Using GENERAL_BARRIER() keeps gcc from re-ordering the code and also keeps the cpu from re-ordering the code. Now, I wonder if gcc wont re-order code over its memory barrier builtin, __sync_synchronize(), which would make the use of COMPILER_BARRIER redundant.
X86
As Ben points out, different architectures have different rules regarding how they rearrange code in the execution pipelines. Intel seems to be fairly conservative. So the barriers might not be required nearly as much on Intel. Not a good reason to avoid the barriers though, since that could change.
ORIGINAL POST:
We do this all the time. its perfectly safe (not for all situations, but a lot). Our application runs on 1000's of servers in a huge farm with 16 instances per server and we don't have race conditions. You are correct to wonder why people use mutexes to protect already atomic operations. In many situations the lock is a waste of time. Reading and writing to 32 bit integers on most architectures is atomic. Don't try that with 32 bit bit-fields though!
Processor write re-ordering is not going to affect one thread reading a global value set by another thread. In fact, the result using locks is the same as the result not without locks. If you win the race and check the value before its changed ... well that's the same as winning the race to lock the value so no-one else can change it while you read it. Functionally the same.
The volatile keyword tells the compiler not to store a value in a register, but to keep referring to the original memory location. this should have no effect unless you are optimizing code. We have found that the compiler is pretty smart about this and have not run into a situation yet where volatile changed anything. The compiler seems to be pretty good at coming up with candidates for register optimization. I suspect that the const keyword might encourage register optimization on a variable.
The compiler might re-order code in a function if it knows the end result will not be different. I have not seen the compiler do this with global variables, because the compiler has no idea how changing the order of a global variable will affect code outside of the immediate function.
If a function is acting up, you can control the optimization level at the function level using __attrribute__.
Now, that said, if you use that flag as a gateway to allow only one thread of a group to perform some work, that wont work. Example: Thread A and Thread B both could read the flag. Thread A gets scheduled out. Thread B sets the flag to 1 and starts working. Thread A wakes up and sets the flag to 1 and starts working. Ooops! To avoid locks and still do something like that you need to look into atomic operations, specifically gcc atomic builtins like __sync_bool_compare_and_swap(value, old, new). This allows you to set value = new if value is currently old. In the previous example, if value = 1, only one thread (A or B) could execute __sync_bool_compare_and_swap(&value, 1, 2) and change value from 1 to 2. The losing thread would fail. __sync_bool_compare_and_swap returns the success of the operation.
Deep down, there is a "lock" when you use the atomic builtins, but it is a hardware instruction and very fast when compared to using mutexes.
That said, use mutexes when you have to change a lot of values at the same time. atomic operations (as of todayu) only work when all the data that has to change atomicly can fit into a contiguous 8,16,32,64 or 128 bits.
Assume the first thing you're doing in thread func in sleeping for a second. So value after that will be definetly 1.
In any instant you should at least declare the shared variable volatile. However you should in all cases prefer some other form of thread IPC or synchronisation; in this case it looks like a condition variable is what you actually need.
Hm, I guess it is secure, but why don't you just declare a function that returns the value to the other threads, as they will only read it?
Because the simple idea of passing pointers to separate threads is already a security fail, in my humble opinion. What I'm telling you is: why to give a (modifiable, public accessible) integer address when you only need the value?
Related
There are 2 threads,one only reads the signal,the other only sets the signal.
Is it necessary to create a mutex for signal and the reason?
UPDATE
All I care is whether it'll crash if two threads read/set the same time
You will probably want to use atomic variables for this, though a mutex would work as well.
The problem is that there is no guarantee that data will stay in sync between threads, but using atomic variables ensures that as soon as one thread updates that variable, other threads immediately read its updated value.
A problem could occur if one thread updates the variable in cache, and a second thread reads the variable from memory. That second thread would read an out-of-date value for the variable, if the cache had not yet been flushed to memory. Atomic variables ensure that the value of the variable is consistent across threads.
If you are not concerned with timely variable updates, you may be able to get away with a single volatile variable.
It depends. If writes are atomic then you don't need a mutual exclusion lock. If writes are not atomic, then you do need a lock.
There is also the issue of compilers caching variables in the CPU cache which may cause the copy in main memory to not get updating on every write. Some languages have ways of telling the compiler to not cache a variable in the CPU like that (volatile keyword in Java), or to tell the compiler to sync any cached values with main memory (synchronized keyword in Java). But, mutex's in general don't solve this problem.
If all you need is synchronization between threads (one thread must complete something before the other can begin something else) then mutual exclusion should not be necessary.
Mutual exclusion is only necessary when threads are sharing some resource where the resource could be corrupted if they both run through the critical section at roughly the same time. Think of two people sharing a bank account and are at two different ATM's at the same time.
Depending on your language/threading library you may use the same mechanism for synchronization as you do for mutual exclusion- either a semaphore or a monitor. So, if you are using Pthreads someone here could post an example of synchronization and another for mutual exclusion. If its java, there would be another example. Perhaps you can tell us what language/library you're using.
If, as you've said in your edit, you only want to assure against a crash, then you don't need to do much of anything (at least as a rule). If you get a collision between threads, about the worst that will happen is that the data will be corrupted -- e.g., the reader might get a value that's been partially updated, and doesn't correspond directly to any value the writing thread ever wrote. The classic example would be a multi-byte number that you added something to, and there was a carry, (for example) the old value was 0x3f ffff, which was being incremented. It's possible the reading thread could see 0x3f 0000, where the lower 16 bits have been incremented, but the carry to the upper 16 bits hasn't happened (yet).
On a modern machine, an increment on that small of a data item will normally be atomic, but there will be some size (and alignment) where it's not -- typically if part of the variable is in one cache line, and part in another, it'll no longer be atomic. The exact size and alignment for that varies somewhat, but the basic idea remains the same -- it's mostly just a matter of the number having enough digits for it to happen.
Of course, if you're not careful, something like that could cause your code to deadlock or something on that order -- it's impossible to guess what might happen without knowing anything about how you plan to use the data.
Online examples of correct use of the volatile keyword appear to be like so:
void Foo (volatile SomethingExternal * x, int data_update)
{
while (x->busy);
x->data = data_update;
}
But it seems that if the data that x points to is genuinely volatile, then a context switch may occur between exiting the while loop and writing to the data, so if it's important that the busy flag is false when we access it then isn't this code unsafe?
This is not quite true. There are constructs which, by design, are correct when implemented with volatile operations. From the standard as quoted in [this answer]:
The observable behavior of the abstract machine is its sequence of reads and writes to volatile data and calls to library I/O functions.
This gives us guarantees that all volatile data will be read and written as requested, without reordering with respect to the current thread.
As an example of a structure which is correct even with context-switching, the low-level acquisition of a mutex can be implemented using Dekker's Algorithm. This algorithm does not require an atomic compare-and-swap operation, but it does require the use of volatile-qualified memory. Since volatile operations of one thread are not reordered as seen by anyone (including external threads), the algorithm's correctness holds (the proof requires that operations not be reordered). Likewise, because volatile reads always read from actual memory and not from a cached value, the algorithm can make progress when the lock is made available.
It is an exercise to show to the reader that this algorithm can be used to construct, for example, a safe locking idiom.
Another example of (safe) use of volatile variables is the code given in your question, when executed on a single-threaded processor without context switches (e.g. a microcontroller with interrupts disabled) with x pointing into the memory mapping of an external device. This assumes that the code is actually correct for the device's intended use (i.e. as soon as busy is deasserted, a single write to the data register will initiate whatever task is required of it).
Volatile reads ensure that your program makes progress when the device is no longer busy (liveness), because the compiler cannot simply coalesce the loop into a single memory read followed by an infinite loop taken if the device was busy.
In the example you link to, the model is of some device that is accessed with volatile objects. There is no other thread or process interacting with the device: Once the device finishes its task and becomes not busy, it remains not busy until you give it a new command. No other thread or process will make it busy; you own the device and have exclusive access. The memory needs to be marked volatile so that the compiler will perform an actual read when the C code checks x->busy and will perform an actual write when the C code writes x->data.
You are correct that a context switch could occur between testing x->busy and writing x->data. This would be a bug if there were another process or thread that were accessing the device. But that is not what this code is for.
I was studying OS and synchronizing and I got an idea about dealing with this shared data without synchronizing but I am not sure if it will work.Here is the code
Now,the race condition is obviously the increment and decrement in a shared data.But what if the integer variable was atomic?I think I read something about this when I just a beginner in CS so question might not be perfect.As far as I remember it was blocking something to prevent the increment and decrement at the same time.Now,I am a bit confused about this because if the atomic variables really worked there would not be any need to find synchronization methods for simple codes like this one.
Note:Code is removed since it just changes the focus of people and answer provides enough info
As it stands, the code is indeed not safe to call concurrently, so there must be some kind of syncronization that prevents this.
Now, concerning the idea to make num_processes atomic, that could work. It wouldn't be a simple substitution though, in particular comparing to the max and incrementing must be done atomically and not in two steps, otherwise you still have a race condition. In particular, the following steps must be prevented:
Thread A checks if the limit is reached, which it isn't.
Thread B checks if the limit is reached, which it isn't.
Thread B increments the PID counter.
Thread A increments the PID counter.
Each step in and of itself is atomic, but obviously that didn't help preventing a PID overflow. Instead, the code must check if the counter is not at the limit and then increment it atomically. This is also a common task (compare and increment), so you should easily find existing code examples.
However, I'm pretty sure this isn't all code that is involved and some other code (e.g. in get_processID() or the code that releases a PID) could still require a lock around the whole.
For your code, synchronization is not necessary at all because here num_processes is incremented and decremented by only one process i.e. Parent process.And also num_processes is not a shared variable here. To create shared variable you have to first learn about shmget() and shmat() function in UNIX.
And race condition arises if two or more processes want to access a shared memory.An operation will be atomic if that operation is going to executed entirely (i.e. no switching) or not at all. For example
Consider increment operator on a shared data. This operator is not atomic. Because if go to the lower level instruction for increment operator then this operation is performed in several steps as:
1. First load the value of variable in some register.
2. Add one with that loaded value and now result will be in some temporary register.
3. Store this result in the memory location / register that is pointed by that variable on which increment is performed.
Now As you can see this operation is done in three step. So if there is any switching to another process before completion of these three steps then it leads to undesired results. For more you can read about race condition from this link http://tutorials.jenkov.com/java-concurrency/race-conditions-and-critical-sections.html. As from above you can see that add, store, load instructions are atomic because it will be performed entirely or not at all considering there is no power failure any system failure. So to perform increment operation atomic we need to do some synchronization either using semaphores or monitors. These all are software synchronization technique. I think now you will be clear on this topic..
Is there a problem with multiple threads using the same integer memory location between pthreads in a C program without any synchronization utilities?
To simplify the issue,
Only one thread will write to the integer
Multiple threads will read the integer
This pseudo-C illustrates what I am thinking
void thread_main(int *a) {
//wait for something to finish
//dereference 'a', make decision based on its value
}
int value = 0;
for (int i=0; i<10; i++)
pthread_create(NULL,NULL,thread_main,&value);
}
// do something
value = 1;
I assume it is safe, since an integer occupies one processor word, and reading/writing to a word should be the most atomic of operations, right?
Your pseudo-code is NOT safe.
Although accessing a word-sized integer is indeed atomic, meaning that you'll never see an intermediate value, but either "before write" or "after write", this isn't enough for your outlined algorithm.
You are relying on the relative order of the write to a and making some other change that wakes the thread. This is not an atomic operation and is not guaranteed on modern processors.
You need some sort of memory fence to prevent write reordering. Otherwise it's not guaranteed that other threads EVER see the new value.
Unlike java where you explicitly start a thread, posix threads start executing immediatelly.
So there is no guarantee that the value you set to 1 in main function (assuming that is what you refer in your pseudocode) will be executed before or after the threads try to access it.
So while it is safe to read the integer concurrently, you need to do some synchronization if you need to write to the value in order to be used by the threads.
Otherwise there is no guarantee what is the value they will read (in order to act depending on the value as you note).
You should not be making assumptions on multithreading e.g.that there is some processing in each thread befor accessing the value etc.
There are no guarantees
I wouldn't count on it. The compiler may emit code that assumes it knows what the value of 'value' is at any given time in a CPU register without re-loading it from memory.
EDIT:
Ben is correct (and I'm an idiot for saying he wasn't) that there is the possibility that the cpu will re-order the instructions and execute them down multiple pipelines at the same time. This means that the value=1 could possibly get set before the pipeline performing "the work" finished. In my defense (not a full idiot?) I have never seen this happen in real life and we do have an extensive thread library and we do run exhaustive long term tests and this pattern is used throughout. I would have seen it if it were happening, but none of our tests ever crash or produce the wrong answer. But... Ben is correct, the possibility exists. It is probably happening all the time in our code, but the re-ordering is not setting flags early enough that the consumers of the data protected by the flags can use the data before its finished. I will be changing our code to include barriers, because there is no guarantee that this will continue to work in the wild. I believe the correct solution is similar to this:
Threads that read the value:
...
if (value)
{
__sync_synchronize(); // don't pipeline any of the work until after checking value
DoSomething();
}
...
The thread that sets the value:
...
DoStuff()
__sync_synchronize(); // Don't pipeline "setting value" until after finishing stuff
value = 1; // Stuff Done
...
That being said, I found this to be a simple explanation of barriers.
COMPILER BARRIER
Memory barriers affect the CPU. Compiler barriers affect the compiler. Volatile will not keep the compiler from re-ordering code. Here for more info.
I believe you can use this code to keep gcc from rearranging the code during compile time:
#define COMPILER_BARRIER() __asm__ __volatile__ ("" ::: "memory")
So maybe this is what should really be done?
#define GENERAL_BARRIER() do { COMPILER_BARRIER(); __sync_synchronize(); } while(0)
Threads that read the value:
...
if (value)
{
GENERAL_BARRIER(); // don't pipeline any of the work until after checking value
DoSomething();
}
...
The thread that sets the value:
...
DoStuff()
GENERAL_BARRIER(); // Don't pipeline "setting value" until after finishing stuff
value = 1; // Stuff Done
...
Using GENERAL_BARRIER() keeps gcc from re-ordering the code and also keeps the cpu from re-ordering the code. Now, I wonder if gcc wont re-order code over its memory barrier builtin, __sync_synchronize(), which would make the use of COMPILER_BARRIER redundant.
X86
As Ben points out, different architectures have different rules regarding how they rearrange code in the execution pipelines. Intel seems to be fairly conservative. So the barriers might not be required nearly as much on Intel. Not a good reason to avoid the barriers though, since that could change.
ORIGINAL POST:
We do this all the time. its perfectly safe (not for all situations, but a lot). Our application runs on 1000's of servers in a huge farm with 16 instances per server and we don't have race conditions. You are correct to wonder why people use mutexes to protect already atomic operations. In many situations the lock is a waste of time. Reading and writing to 32 bit integers on most architectures is atomic. Don't try that with 32 bit bit-fields though!
Processor write re-ordering is not going to affect one thread reading a global value set by another thread. In fact, the result using locks is the same as the result not without locks. If you win the race and check the value before its changed ... well that's the same as winning the race to lock the value so no-one else can change it while you read it. Functionally the same.
The volatile keyword tells the compiler not to store a value in a register, but to keep referring to the original memory location. this should have no effect unless you are optimizing code. We have found that the compiler is pretty smart about this and have not run into a situation yet where volatile changed anything. The compiler seems to be pretty good at coming up with candidates for register optimization. I suspect that the const keyword might encourage register optimization on a variable.
The compiler might re-order code in a function if it knows the end result will not be different. I have not seen the compiler do this with global variables, because the compiler has no idea how changing the order of a global variable will affect code outside of the immediate function.
If a function is acting up, you can control the optimization level at the function level using __attrribute__.
Now, that said, if you use that flag as a gateway to allow only one thread of a group to perform some work, that wont work. Example: Thread A and Thread B both could read the flag. Thread A gets scheduled out. Thread B sets the flag to 1 and starts working. Thread A wakes up and sets the flag to 1 and starts working. Ooops! To avoid locks and still do something like that you need to look into atomic operations, specifically gcc atomic builtins like __sync_bool_compare_and_swap(value, old, new). This allows you to set value = new if value is currently old. In the previous example, if value = 1, only one thread (A or B) could execute __sync_bool_compare_and_swap(&value, 1, 2) and change value from 1 to 2. The losing thread would fail. __sync_bool_compare_and_swap returns the success of the operation.
Deep down, there is a "lock" when you use the atomic builtins, but it is a hardware instruction and very fast when compared to using mutexes.
That said, use mutexes when you have to change a lot of values at the same time. atomic operations (as of todayu) only work when all the data that has to change atomicly can fit into a contiguous 8,16,32,64 or 128 bits.
Assume the first thing you're doing in thread func in sleeping for a second. So value after that will be definetly 1.
In any instant you should at least declare the shared variable volatile. However you should in all cases prefer some other form of thread IPC or synchronisation; in this case it looks like a condition variable is what you actually need.
Hm, I guess it is secure, but why don't you just declare a function that returns the value to the other threads, as they will only read it?
Because the simple idea of passing pointers to separate threads is already a security fail, in my humble opinion. What I'm telling you is: why to give a (modifiable, public accessible) integer address when you only need the value?
I have 2 questions regarding to threads, one is about race condition and the other is about mutex.
So the first question :
I've read about race condition in wikipedia page :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_condition
And in the example of race condition between 2 threads this is shown :
http://i60.tinypic.com/2vrtuz4.png[
Now so far I believed that threads works parallel to each other, but judging from this picture it's seems that I interpreted on how actions done by the computer wrong.
From this picture only 1 action is done at a time, and although the threads gets switched from time to time and the other thread gets to do some actions this is still 1 action at a time done by the computer. Is it really like this ? There's no "real" parallel computing, just 1 action done at a time in a very fast rate which gives the illusion of parallel computing ?
This leads me to my second question about mutex.
I've read that if threads read/write to the same memory we need some sort of synchronization mechanism. I've read the normal data types won't do and we need a mutex.
Let's take for example the following code :
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include <process.h>
bool lock = false;
void increment(void*);
void decrement(void*);
int main()
{
int n = 5;
HANDLE hIncrement = (HANDLE)_beginthread(increment, 0, (void*)&n);
HANDLE hDecrement = (HANDLE)_beginthread(decrement, 0, (void*)&n);
WaitForSingleObject(hIncrement, 1000 * 500);
WaitForSingleObject(hDecrement, 1000 * 500);
return 0;
}
void increment(void *p)
{
int *n = p;
for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
while (lock)
{
}
lock = true;
(*n)++;
lock = false;
}
}
void decrement(void *p)
{
int *n = p;
for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
while (lock)
{
}
lock = true;
(*n)--;
lock = false;
}
}
Now in my example here, I use bool lock as my synchronization mechanism to avoid a race condition between the 2 threads over the memory space pointed by pointer n.
Now what I did here won't obviously work because although I avoided a race condition over the memory space pointed by pointer n between the 2 threads a new race condition over bool lock variable may occur.
Let's consider the following sequence of events (A = increment thread, B = decrement thread) :
A gets out of the while loop since lock is false
A gets to set lock to true
B waits in the while loop because lock is set to true
A increment the value pointed by n
A sets lock to false
A gets to the while loop
A gets out of the while loop since lock is false
B gets out of the while loop since lock is false
A sets lock to true
B sets lock to true
and from here we get an unexpected behavior of 2 un-synchronized threads because the bool lock is not race condition proof.
Ok, so far this is my understanding and the solution to our problem above we need a mutex.
I'm fine with that, a data type that will magically be condition race proof.
I just don't understand how with mutex type it won't happen where as with every other type it will and here lies my problem, I want to understand why mutex and how this is happening.
About your first question: Whether or not there are actually several different threads running at once, or whether it is just implemented as as fast switching, is a matter of your hardware. Typical PCs these days have several cores (often with more than one thread each), so you have to assume that things actually DO happen at the same time.
But even if you have only a single-core system, things are not quite so easy. This is because the compiler is usually allowed to re-order instructions in order to optimize code. It can also e.g. choose to cache a variable in a CPU register instead of loading it from memory every time you access it, and it also doesn't have to write it back to memory every time you write to that variable. The compiler is allowed to do that as long as the result is the same AS IF it had run your original code in its original order - as long as nobody else is looking closely at what's actually going on, such as a different thread.
And once you actually do have different cores, consider that they all have their own CPU registers and even their own cache. Even if a thread on one core wrote to a certain variable, as long as that core doesn't write its cache back to the shared memory a different core won't see that change.
In short, you have to be very careful in making any assumptions about what happens when two threads access variables at the same time, especially in C/C++. The interactions can be so surprising that I'd say, to stay on the safe side, you should make sure that there are no race conditions in your code, e.g. by always using mutexes for accessing memory that is shared between threads.
Which is where we can neatly segway into the second question: What's so special about mutexes, and how can they work if all basic data types are not threadsafe?
The thing about mutexes is that they are implemented with a lot of knowledge about the system for which they are being used (hardware and operating system), and with either the direct help or a deep knowledge of the compiler itself.
The C language does not give you direct access to all the capabilities of your hardware and operating system, because platforms can be very different from each other. Instead, C focuses on providing a level of abstraction that allows you to compile the same code for many different platforms. The different "basic" data types are just something that the C standard came up with as a set of data types which can in some way be supported on almost any platform - but the actual hardware that your program will be compiled for is usually not limited to those types and operations.
In other word, not everything that you can do with your PC can be expressed in terms of C's ints, bytes, assignments, arithmetic operators and so on. For example, PCs often calculate with 80-bit floating point types which are usually not mapped directly to a C floating point type at all. More to the point of our topic, there are also CPU instructions that influence how multiple CPU cores will work together. Additionally, if you know the CPU, you often know a few things about the behaviour of the basic types that the C standard doesn't guarantee (for example, whether loads and stores to 32-bit integers are atomic). With that extra knowledge, it can become possible to implement mutexes for that particular platform, and it will often require code that is e.g. written directly in assembly language, because the necessary features are not available in plain C.