For a school project, I have to implement a simple atomic_sub() function in c. The implementation must use the asm() function. Right now, my code looks like this void atomic_sub( int * value, int dec_val) { asm ("LOCK SUB (%0), %1;\n" : : "r" (value), "r" (dec_val) : "memory"); } The intention is for "value" to decrement by "dec_val" atomically, but when I try to compile I get the following error. "locking.c:28: Error: expecting lockable instruction after 'lock'" This asm() call is on line 28, so this is the instruction the error is referring to. Does anyone know why this isn't a lockable instruction? According to the documentation from Intel I've read, a sub with a destination of a memory address is lockable. Any ideas? -- View this message in context: http://gcc.1065356.n5.nabble.com/using-asm-to-execute-an-atomic-subtraction-instruction-tp873076.html Sent from the gcc - Help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.