One thing I found useful is instead of volatile T member; T access( void ) { return member; } Use volatile on the functions instead: T member; T ac

One thing I found useful is instead of volatile T member; T access( void ) { return member; } Use volatile on the functions instead: T member; T access( void ) volatile { return member; } This has causes all access to this-> within the function to be volatile, including read_position, write_position, overrun_flag and data[]. When inlining these functions within other parts of the code, the compiler can hoist reads into registers from the non-volatile members unless you add the compiler barrier that @ghhhhhk8899jj mentioned.