The problem is that MySQL's 'fast' mutex implementation uses the
random() routine to determine the spin delay. Unfortunately, the
routine interface is not thead-safe and some implementations (eg:
glibc) might use a internal lock to protect the RNG state, causing
excessive locking contention if lots of threads are spinning on
a MySQL's 'fast' mutex. The code was also misusing the value
of the RAND_MAX macro, this macro represents the largest value
that can be returned from the rand() function, not random().

The solution is to use the quite simple Park-Miller random number
generator. The initial seed is set to 1 because the previously used
generator wasn't being seeded -- the initial seed is 1 if srandom()
is not called.

Futhermore, the 'fast' mutex implementation has several shortcomings
and provides no measurable performance benefit. Therefore, its use is
not recommended unless it provides directly measurable results.