driver/sound/soundcard.c lock_kernel()/unlock_kernel()

[Frank Davis]

Hello all,
      I've been looking through the sound drivers in the 2.4.5-ac series
.  
drivers/sound/soundcard.c has a few lock_kernel()/unlock_kernel() calls,
esp. in the read() and write() functions. Could these calls be easily
replaced with semaphores or spinlock calls? I vaguely remember emails on
lkml a while ago regarding the removal of lock_kernel()/unlock_kernel(),
but I'm don't recall what the replacement was (if any).
Regards,
Frank

btw, Sorry in advance if the mailer causes probelms.