Mutex uses a locking mechanism i.e. if a process wants to use a resource then it locks the resource, uses it and then release it. But on the other hand, semaphore uses a signalling mechanism where wait() and signal() methods are used to show if a process is releasing a resource or taking a resource. A mutex is an object but semaphore is an integer variable. In semaphore, we have wait() and signal() functions. But in mutex, there is no such function. A mutex object allows multiple process threads to access a single shared resource but only one at a time. On the other hand, semaphore allows multiple process threads to access the finite instance of the resource until available. In mutex, the lock can be acquired and released by the same process at a time. But the value of the semaphore variable can be modified by any process that needs some resource but only one process can change the value at a time.

一本有用的书，我从这里学习和复制

它们不是一回事。它们有不同的用途! 虽然这两种类型的信号量都有一个满/空状态，并且使用相同的API，但它们的用法非常不同。

互斥信号量 互斥信号量用于保护共享资源(数据结构、文件等)。

互斥信号量由接收它的任务“拥有”。如果Task B尝试semGive一个当前由Task a持有的互斥锁，Task B的调用将返回一个错误并失败。

互斥对象总是使用以下顺序:

  - SemTake
  - Critical Section
  - SemGive

这里有一个简单的例子:

  Thread A                     Thread B
   Take Mutex
     access data
     ...                        Take Mutex  <== Will block
     ...
   Give Mutex                     access data  <== Unblocks
                                  ...
                                Give Mutex

二进制信号量 二进制信号量解决了一个完全不同的问题:

任务B被挂起等待某些事情发生(例如传感器被绊倒)。 传感器跳闸和中断服务程序运行。它需要通知任务的行程。 任务B应运行并对传感器跳闸采取适当的操作。然后继续等待。

   Task A                      Task B
   ...                         Take BinSemaphore   <== wait for something
   Do Something Noteworthy
   Give BinSemaphore           do something    <== unblocks

注意，对于二进制信号量，B获取信号量，a给出信号量是可以的。 同样，二进制信号量不能保护资源不被访问。信号量的给予和获取从根本上是分离的。 对于同一个任务来说，对同一个二进制信号量的给予和获取通常没有什么意义。

“二进制信号量”是一种编程语言规避使用«信号量»，如«互斥量»。显然有两个非常大的区别:

你称呼他们的方式。 标识符的最大长度。

在理论层面上，它们在语义上并无不同。您可以使用信号量实现互斥量，反之亦然(参见这里的示例)。在实践中，实现是不同的，它们提供的服务也略有不同。

实际的区别(就围绕它们的系统服务而言)在于互斥锁的实现旨在成为一种更轻量级的同步机制。在oracle语言中，互斥锁被称为锁存器，而信号量被称为等待。

在最低级别，他们使用某种原子测试和设置机制。它读取内存位置的当前值，计算某种条件，并在一条不能中断的指令中写入该位置的值。这意味着您可以获得一个互斥锁，并测试是否有人在您之前拥有它。

典型的互斥量实现有一个进程或线程执行test-and-set指令，并评估是否有其他东西设置了互斥量。这里的关键点是与调度程序没有交互，因此我们不知道(也不关心)谁设置了锁。然后，我们要么放弃我们的时间片，并在任务重新调度时再次尝试它，要么执行自旋锁。自旋锁是这样一种算法:

Count down from 5000:
     i. Execute the test-and-set instruction
    ii. If the mutex is clear, we have acquired it in the previous instruction 
        so we can exit the loop
   iii. When we get to zero, give up our time slice.

当我们完成执行受保护的代码(称为临界区)时，我们只需将互斥量的值设置为零或其他表示“清除”的值。如果有多个任务试图获取互斥量，那么下一个计划在互斥量释放后的任务将获得对资源的访问权。通常情况下，您可以使用互斥来控制同步资源，在这种资源中，只需要在很短的时间内对其进行独占访问，通常是对共享数据结构进行更新。

A semaphore is a synchronised data structure (typically using a mutex) that has a count and some system call wrappers that interact with the scheduler in a bit more depth than the mutex libraries would. Semaphores are incremented and decremented and used to block tasks until something else is ready. See Producer/Consumer Problem for a simple example of this. Semaphores are initialised to some value - a binary semaphore is just a special case where the semaphore is initialised to 1. Posting to a semaphore has the effect of waking up a waiting process.

一个基本的信号量算法如下所示:

(somewhere in the program startup)
Initialise the semaphore to its start-up value.

Acquiring a semaphore
   i. (synchronised) Attempt to decrement the semaphore value
  ii. If the value would be less than zero, put the task on the tail of the list of tasks waiting on the semaphore and give up the time slice.

Posting a semaphore
   i. (synchronised) Increment the semaphore value
  ii. If the value is greater or equal to the amount requested in the post at the front of the queue, take that task off the queue and make it runnable.  
 iii. Repeat (ii) for all tasks until the posted value is exhausted or there are no more tasks waiting.

在二进制信号量的情况下，两者之间的主要实际区别是围绕实际数据结构的系统服务的性质。

编辑:正如evan正确地指出的那样，自旋锁会降低单个处理器的速度。你只能在多处理器上使用自旋锁，因为在单处理器上，持有互斥锁的进程永远不会在另一个任务运行时重置它。自旋锁只在多处理器架构上有用。

The basic issue is concurrency. There is more than one flow of control. Think about two processes using a shared memory. Now only one process can access the shared memory at a time. If more than one process accesses the shared memory at a time, the contents of shared memory would get corrupted. It is like a railroad track. Only one train can run on it, else there would be an accident.So there is a signalling mechanism, which a driver checks. If the signal is green, the train can go and if it is red it has to wait to use the track. Similarly in case of shared memory, there is a binary semaphore. If the semaphore is 1, a process acquires it (makes it 0) and goes ahead and accesses it. If the semaphore is 0, the process waits. The functionality the binary semaphore has to provide is mutual exclusion (or mutex, in short) so that only one of the many concurrent entities (process or thread) mutually excludes others. It is a plus that we have counting semaphores, which help in synchronizing multiple instances of a resource.

互斥是信号量提供的基本功能。现在在线程上下文中，我们可能有不同的名称和语法。但基本概念是相同的:如何在并发编程中保持代码和数据的完整性。在我看来，像所有权和相关检查这样的东西是由实现提供的改进。

互斥对象有所有权，不像信号量。尽管在互斥量范围内的任何线程都可以获得一个未锁定的互斥量，并锁定对同一关键代码段的访问，但只有锁定了互斥量的线程才应该解锁它。