Replace direct accesses to sched_active_thread and sched_active_pid with
the helper functions thread_getpid() and thread_get_active(). This serves
two purposes:
1. It makes accidental writes to those variable from outside core less likely.
2. Casting off the volatile qualifier is now well contained to those two
functions
Fixes#1708.
Currently involuntary preemption causes the current thread not only to
yield for a higher prioritized thread, but all other threads of its own
priority class, too.
This PR adds the function `thread_yield_higher()`, which will yield the
current thread in favor of higher prioritized functions, but not for
threads of its own priority class.
Boards now need to implement `thread_yield_higher()` instead of
`thread_yield()`, but `COREIF_NG` boards are not affected in any way.
`thread_yield()` retains its old meaning: yield for every thread that
has the same or a higher priority.
This PR does not touch the occurrences of `thread_yield()` in the periph
drivers, because the author of this PR did not look into the logic of
the various driver implementations.
