1. A multiprocessor wherein each processor in the multiprocessor shares resources, comprising: a hardware locking device that provides support for synchronization between the multiple processors in the multiprocessor and the orderly sharing of the resources, wherein a processor only has permission to access a resource when it owns the lock associated with that resource, and an attempt by a processor to own a lock requires only a single load operation, rather than a traditional atomic load followed by store, such that the processor only performs a read operation and the hardware locking device performs a subsequent write operation rather than the processor.