[gst-devel] question about atomic_t data type

[Brent Bradburn]

GStreamer is using data type atomic_t defined in #include <asm/atomic.h>.
There is an interesting comment repeated throughout the atomic.h file:

   "Note that the guaranteed useful range of atomic_t is only 24 bits".

Does anyone know why this is the case?
Does this affect the ability of atomic_t to represent negative numbers (where
bit 31 is normally indicates sign).

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