Mutex Vs Semaphore

Mutex:Is a key to a room. One person can have the key - occupy the room - at the time. When finished, the person gives (frees) the key to the next person in the queue.

Officially: "Mutexes are typically used to serialise access to a section of re-entrant code that cannot be executed concurrently by more than one thread.
A mutex object only allows one thread into a controlled section, forcing other threads which attempt to gain access to that section to wait until the first thread has exited from that section."(A mutex is really a semaphore with value 1.)

Semaphore:Is the number of free identical room keys. Example, say we have four rooms with identical locks and keys. The semaphore count - the count of keys - is set to 4 at beginning (all four rooms are free), then the count value is decremented as people are coming in. If all rooms are full, ie. There are no free keys left, the semaphore count is 0. Now, when eq. one person leaves the room, semaphore is increased to 1 (one free key), and given to the next person in the queue.

Officially: "A semaphore restricts the number of simultaneous users of a shared resource up to a maximum number. Threads can request access to the resource (decrementing the semaphore), and can signal that they have finished using the resource (incrementing the semaphore)."

While a mutex will only let one owner attempt access, a Semaphore can be assigned a number and allow "x" number of threads access.