I've found Herb Sutter's talk on std::atomic also useful for understanding this. The 2nd part of his talk goes into some of the differences between x86 and oth

I've found Herb Sutter's talk on std::atomic also useful for understanding this. The 2nd part of his talk goes into some of the differences between x86 and other architectures (about 31 min in): https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Going+Deep/Cpp-and-Beyond-2012-Herb-Sutter-atomic-Weapons-2-of-2 https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Going+Deep/Cpp-and-Beyond-20...