A

critical section

prevents multiple threads from accessing the critical section's code at the same time, thus only one active thread can update the data referenced by the code. A critical section may consist of one or more statements. To implement a critical section:

Use the optional named form for a non-nested mutex, such as (C/C++)

#pragma omp critical(name)

or (Fortran)

!$omp critical(name)

and

!$omp end critical(name)

. If the optional

(name)

is omitted, it locks a single unnamed global mutex. The easiest approach is to use the unnamed form unless performance measurement shows this shared mutex is causing unacceptable delays.

An

atomic operation

allows multiple threads to safely update a shared numeric variable on hardware platforms that support its use. An atomic operation applies to only one assignment statement that immediately follows it. To implement an atomic operation:

The statement to be protected must meet certain criteria (see your compiler or OpenMP documentation).

Locks

provide a low-level means of general-purpose locking. To implement a lock, use the OpenMP types, variables, and functions to provide more flexible and powerful use of locks. For example, use the

omp_lock_t

type in C/C++ or the

type=omp_lock_kind

in Fortran. These types and functions are easy to use and usually directly replace

Intel Advisor

lock annotations.

Reduction operations

can be used for simple cases, such as incrementing a shared numeric variable or summing an array into a shared numeric variable. To implement a reduction operation, add the

reduction

clause within a parallel region to instruct the compiler to perform the summation operation in parallel using the specified operation and variable.

OpenMP provides other synchronization techniques, including specifying a

barrier

construct where threads will wait for each other, an

ordered

construct that ensures sequential execution of a structured block within a parallel loop, and

master

regions that can only be executed by the master thread. For more information, see your compiler or OpenMP documentation.