Operating systems often distinguish between counting and binary semaphores. The value of a counting semaphore can range over an unrestricted domain. The value of a binary semaphore can range only between 0 and 1. Thus, binary semaphores behave similarly to mutex locks. In fact, on systems that do not provide mutex locks, binary semaphores can be used instead for providing mutual exclusion.
Counting semaphores can be used to control access to a given resource consisting of a finite number of instances. The semaphore is initialized to the number of resources available. Each process that wishes to use a resource performs a wait() operation on the semaphore (thereby decrementing the count). When a process releases a resource, it performs a signal() operation (incrementing the count). When the count for the semaphore goes to 0, all resources are being used. After that, processes that wish to use a resource will block until the count becomes greater than 0.
Semaphore is essentially a counter + a mutex + a wait queue. And it can be used as it is without external dependencies. You can use it either as a mutex or as a conditional variable.
Therefore, semaphore can be treated as a more sophisticated structure than conditional variable, while the latter is more lightweight and flexible.
We can easily build Semaphore from a mutex and a condition variable.
Reference
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4792449/c0x-has-no-semaphores-how-to-synchronize-threads