[Threads-devel] basic_timed_mutex poor performance

Subject: [Threads-devel] basic_timed_mutex poor performance
From: Simon Brangwin (simon_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-03-30 03:43:54

Since upgrading Boost from 1.3.4 to 1.3.5, mutex operations have
displayed dramatically worse performance. After some profiling it was
discovered that the change to derive all mutexes from basic_timed_mutex
is the cause. We use the mutexes almost exclusively with scoped lock. We
have no need for a timed mutex and simply need a regular mutex for
simple resource / memory protection between threads.

 

The basic_timed_mutex seems to do an awful lot of working in its
constructor, calling various Gregorian date functions, calendar
functions, xtime functions doing comparisons etc. This has lead to an
approximate 5% performance loss for our performance sensitive
application on the Win32 platform.

 

Is there a way to disable this heavy weight basic_timed_mutex, and use a
plain old regular mutex ? Are the Boost Threads library maintainers
aware of the performance penalties from using timed mutex for Windows
platforms?

 

Simon

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