1. A method for performing spin-lock operations in a computer system comprising: a first thread determining a node id of an owner of a software lock; the first thread spinning on the software lock at a first initial rate in response to determining the node id identifies the same node in which the first thread is executing; and the first thread spinning on the software lock at a slower initial rate in response to determining the node id identifies a different node than the node in which the first thread is executing.