Re: [boost] Boost.Thread project for GSoC 2014

Subject: Re: [boost] Boost.Thread project for GSoC 2014
From: Tim Blechmann (tim_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-03-07 02:43:37

>>> lock-free data structures?
>> No. But I can learn <atomic> quickly.
>> Is lock-free data structures going to be used a lot for this project?
> The work-stealing thread pool would have less contention if we use a
> lock-free dequeue. Of course, we can use Boost.LockFree if it provides
> already whatever we need.

actually, there are work-stealing queue data structures, with private
'push'/'pop' and a public 'steal' function. i do have a prototype of a
textbook-implementation from herlihy/shavit, which is pretty efficient,
although it is bounded (the maximum number of elements has to be defined
in advance) and optimistic (under certain conditions a 'steal' operation
may fail).

it would make sense to integrate such a data structure into
boost.lockfree as part of a GSOC regarding a work-stealing thread-pool.

cheers,
tim