Q:

Linux Preemptive kernel implications?

What are the implications of a linux kernel being preemptive, particularly for creating device drivers. I'm guessing you need to be more diligent about resource locking, but is there anything more to this?

A:

There are a lot more opportunities for race conditions as you had mentioned, so yes, you have to be very diligent with locks.  You also have to be careful about timing, such as when you enable/disable interrupts or other hardware resources, etc.  You don't always have to use locks for these situations, but you may have to reorder you code.  Finally, it also effects scheduling, allowing high priority tasks to be much more responsive, which in turn may have a negative effect on the lower priority tasks.

