redesign cross-thread registration/signalling system

redesign cross-thread registration/signalling system

This new design will work even when threads that need to receive
messages from RT threads are created *after* the RT threads. The
existing design would fail because the RT thread(s) would never
be known the later created threads, and so signals emitted by the
RT thread and causing call_slot() in the receiver would end up
being enqueued using a lock-protected list. The new design ensures
that communication always uses a lock-free FIFO instead