66. The RTVMM of claim 62 wherein a thread requests access to a monitor object be terminated, the implementing step comprising the steps: causing verification that a "u-owner" field of the "hashlock" object associated with the monitor object represents the thread; causing a "count" field in the "hashlock" object to be decremented; if the new value in the "count" field is zero, then: causing the "u-owner" field of the "hashlock" object to be set to represent the highest-priority member of a waiting list for the monitor object; causing the "count" field of the "hashlock" object to be set to 1; causing the removal of the highest-priority member of the waiting list for the monitor object; provided the waiting list is not empty; otherwise: causing the "u-owner" field of the "hashlock" object to be set to a "null" value.
62. The RTVMM of claim 1 wherein each object has a "lock" field initialized to a "null" value, the implementing step comprising the steps: causing a "hashlock object" for each object needing either a lock or a hash value to be allocated memory space and initialized, the "hashlock object" having a "hash value" field; causing the address of the "hashlock object" to be written into the "lock" field of the object; causing the hash value of an object to be retrieved by reading the "hash value" field of the associated "hashlock object".