Updated for Xcode 8, Swift 3; added os_unfair_lock

SpinlockTestTests.swift

//
//  SpinlockTestTests.swift
//  SpinlockTestTests
//
//  Created by Peter Steinberger on 04/10/2016.
//  Copyright © 2016 PSPDFKit GmbH. All rights reserved.
//

import XCTest

final class LockingTests: XCTestCase {

    func testSpinLock() {
        var spinLock = OS_SPINLOCK_INIT
        executeLockTest { (block) in
            OSSpinLockLock(&spinLock)
            block()
            OSSpinLockUnlock(&spinLock)
        }
    }

    func testUnfairLock() {
        var unfairLock = os_unfair_lock_s()
        executeLockTest { (block) in
            os_unfair_lock_lock(&unfairLock)
            block()
            os_unfair_lock_unlock(&unfairLock)
        }
    }

    func testDispatchSemaphore() {
        let sem = DispatchSemaphore(value: 1)
        executeLockTest { (block) in
            _ = sem.wait(timeout: DispatchTime.distantFuture)
            block()
            sem.signal()
        }
    }

    func testNSLock() {
        let lock = NSLock()
        executeLockTest { (block) in
            lock.lock()
            block()
            lock.unlock()
        }
    }

    func testPthreadMutex() {
        var mutex = pthread_mutex_t()
        pthread_mutex_init(&mutex, nil)
        executeLockTest{ (block) in
            pthread_mutex_lock(&mutex)
            block()
            pthread_mutex_unlock(&mutex)
        }
        pthread_mutex_destroy(&mutex);
    }

    func testSyncronized() {
        let obj = NSObject()
        executeLockTest{ (block) in
            objc_sync_enter(obj)
            block()
            objc_sync_exit(obj)
        }
    }

    func testQueue() {
        let lockQueue = DispatchQueue.init(label: "com.test.LockQueue")
        executeLockTest{ (block) in
            lockQueue.sync() {
                block()
            }
        }
    }

    func disabled_testNoLock() {
        executeLockTest { (block) in
            block()
        }
    }
    private func executeLockTest(performBlock:@escaping (_ block:() -> Void) -> Void) {
        let dispatchBlockCount = 16
        let iterationCountPerBlock = 100_000
        // This is an example of a performance test case.
        let queues = [
            DispatchQueue.global(qos: DispatchQoS.QoSClass.userInteractive),
            DispatchQueue.global(qos: DispatchQoS.QoSClass.default),
            DispatchQueue.global(qos: DispatchQoS.QoSClass.utility),
            ]
        var value = 0
        self.measure {
            let group = DispatchGroup.init()
            for block in 0..<dispatchBlockCount {
                group.enter()
                let queue = queues[block % queues.count]
                queue.async(execute: {
                    for _ in 0..<iterationCountPerBlock {
                        performBlock({
                            value = value + 2
                            value = value - 1
                        })
                    }
                    group.leave()
                })
            }
            _ = group.wait(timeout: DispatchTime.distantFuture)
        }
    }
}

@drewster99 I ran a similar test and it seems, NSLock, pthread_mutex and os_unfair_lock all are pretty close and much faster than these test results above suggest. This difference is probably the effect of calling a block in the inner loop of Peter's test, which I do not in my test case (in order to solely measure the effect of the locks).

While I currently have a top notch MacBook, my results are roughly 0.16 secs for 16 queues and a loop counter of 100_000 - for incrementing a shared counter. I didn't test DispatchSemaphore because, well ... I was lazy and it shouldn't be used in those scenarios. ;)

What's interesting though, that in the case of os_unfair_lock, Swift adds an overhead (the usual refcounting management) counting to roughly 70%, and 30% is actually the time spend in os_unfair_lock. So, my guess is, C/C++/Obj-C should be about 3 times faster using os_unfair_lock. It might be even more faster using raw std::atomics, which however cannot be directly compared, because the exact usage of std::atomics depends on what you are synchronising.

Another observation is, that the uncontended case is roughly 4 times faster (i.e., 16 x 100_000 ops on a single queue).

And omitting the function call to os_unfair_lock (i.e. making it inline), would Swift enable to omit a +ref and -ref counter op per lock/unlock pair, which would make the operation much more faster. Well, the function call to os_unfair_lock is not inlineable :/

Don't really understand any of this. Anyway to break it down in sinple was? Been trying to figure it out for months now but still I am lost. Thanks for your help.

I won't recommend to use os_unfair_lock_s as in this code, PLEASE, read this before http://www.russbishop.net/the-law.
In short, in swift you must use

    var unfairLock: UnsafeMutablePointer<os_unfair_lock>
...
init
    unfairLock = UnsafeMutablePointer<os_unfair_lock>.allocate(capacity: 1)
    unfairLock.initialize(to: os_unfair_lock())
deinit
     unfairLock.deallocate()

instead of

   var unfairLock = os_unfair_lock_s()
...