If this just got you excited, consider reading Bartosz Milewski's post [0] about it. It's not too hard to understand, but it helps if you understand everything in the OP's posted blog.

[0]: https://bartoszmilewski.com/2008/12/01/c-atomics-and-memory-...

So... C++ got a memory model, like Java 5? How did they manage without one?

The only real issue was portability. On any given system you could do that already before C++11. Now C++ standard hides those implementation details below unified abstraction.

If interested check this SO answer. http://stackoverflow.com/a/6319356

Thank you for the link. There is a couple of very nice answers.