Methods and system for sharing a hardware resource in a computer system running at least one software process having multiple threads. A lock_indicator is provided in data structures within the computer system. A request is received to use the hardware resource by one of the threads that is defined to be a requesting tread. Based on the lock_indicator, it is determined whether the hardware resource is available for use by the requesting thread. If this indicates that the hardware resource is available, the lock_indicator is set under control of the hardware resource to instead indicate that the hardware resource is unavailable, and a go_indicator signals to indicate that use of the hardware resource for the request can now proceed.