Synchronization algorithms for shared-memory multiprocessors

Author

Graunke, Gary ; Thakkar, Shreekant

Author_Institution

Sequent Comput. Syst., Beaverton, OR, USA

Volume

23

Issue

6

fYear

1990

fDate

6/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

60

Lastpage

69

Abstract

A performance evaluation of the Symmetry multiprocessor system revealed that the synchronization mechanism did not perform well for highly contested locks, like those found in certain parallel applications. Several software synchronization mechanisms were developed and evaluated, using a hardware monitor, on the Symmetry multiprocessor system; the mechanisms were to reduce contention for the lock. The mechanisms remain valuable even when changes are made to the hardware synchronization mechanism to improve support for highly contested locks. The Symmetry architecture is described, and a number of lock algorithms and their use of hardware resources are examined. The performance of each lock is observed from the perspective of both the program itself and the total system performance.<>

Keywords

multiprocessing systems; performance evaluation; synchronisation; Symmetry multiprocessor system; hardware monitor; highly contested locks; lock algorithms; performance evaluation; shared-memory multiprocessors; synchronization mechanism; total system performance; Application software; Computer architecture; Hardware; Monitoring; Multiprocessing systems; Performance evaluation; System performance;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computer

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9162

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/2.55501

Filename

55501