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Grokking concurrency, message passing and Co
Jul 11, 2010
Philippe Sigaud
Jul 11, 2010
Simen kjaeraas
Jul 11, 2010
div0
Jul 11, 2010
BCS
Jul 11, 2010
div0
Jul 11, 2010
BCS
Jul 11, 2010
div0
Jul 11, 2010
BCS
Jul 12, 2010
sybrandy
Jul 12, 2010
div0
Jul 12, 2010
sybrandy
Jul 11, 2010
Philippe Sigaud
Jul 11, 2010
div0
Jul 11, 2010
BLS
Jul 12, 2010
BLS
Jul 12, 2010
BLS
July 11, 2010
Hi,

so, after reading TPDL, I decided to test my comprehension of message-passing and such. Please note that before this day, I never wrote any concurrent code, ever.

I wanted to begin with a simple problem: summing all numbers in a range. So I used the following code:

import std.concurrency, std.stdio, std.perf;

void main() {
    immutable low = 0;
    immutable high = 1_000_000_000;

    auto c = new PerformanceCounter();

    foreach(NN; 0..10) { // 1 to 512 threads
        immutable N = 2^^NN;
        int C = 0;
        immutable step = (high-low)/N;
        writeln("# of threads: ", N);

        c.start;
        foreach(n; 0..N)
        {
            auto tid = spawn(&foo, low+n*step, low+(n+1)*step);
            tid.send(thisTid);
        }

        ulong sum;
        while(C < N) {
            auto end = receiveOnly!(bool, ulong)();
            if (end._0 == true) {
                C++;
                sum += end._1;
            }
        }
        c.stop;
        writefln("%s ms. Sum = %s", c.milliseconds,sum);
    }

    writeln("No thread: ");
    c.start;
    ulong count;
    foreach(i; low..high) count += i;
    c.stop;
    writefln("%s ms. Sum = %s", c.milliseconds,count);

//    writeln(Minus!((S!Z), S!(S!Z)).stringof);
//    writeln(Times!(S!(S!Z), S!(S!Z)).stringof);

}

void foo(int low, int high)
{
    ulong sum;
    auto msg = receiveOnly!(Tid)();
    foreach(i; low..high) sum += i;
    msg.send(true,sum);
}

It cuts the range into N parts, generate N parallel threads that will each sum 1/Nth of the range and return the result. The main thread summ it all.

Just for fun, I had to do that for N being 1, 2, 4, 8, ..., 512 threads.

The results:

the no threads version takes about 6 to 9s to complete on my machine. The 2 to 512 threads take 1.8s repeatedly. I can understand that as this machine has two cores.

So:

- It works! Woo hoo! Look Ma, I'm using message-passing!
- Maybe what I'm dogin is more parallelism than concurrency. But I admit being
more interested in the former than the latter.
- Why is a 2 threads version repeatedly thrice as fast as a no thread version?
I thought it'd be only twice as fast.
- It's fun to see the process running under windows: first only 50% CPU (1
thread), then it jumps to ~100%, while the memory is slowly growing. Then
brutally back to 50% CPU (no thread).
- 1024 threads are OK, but I cannot reach 2048. Why? What is the limit for the
number of spawn I can do? Would that be different if each threads spawn two
sub-threads instead of the main one generating 2048?

- What is the official way to verify that all threads are done? As you can
see, I used a while loop, but I'm reaching in the dark, there.
- I have to read TDPL again: in thread, is there any way to get the Tid of the
thread that spawned you apart from waiting for it to send its Tid?
- is there any way to broadcast a message to a list of threads?

Philippe
July 11, 2010
Philippe Sigaud <philippe.sigaud@gmail.com> wrote:

> - Why is a 2 threads version repeatedly thrice as fast as a no thread version?
> I thought it'd be only twice as fast.

No idea.


> - 1024 threads are OK, but I cannot reach 2048. Why? What is the limit for the
> number of spawn I can do? Would that be different if each threads spawn two
> sub-threads instead of the main one generating 2048?

How many can you do, and what happens when you can't make more?


> - What is the official way to verify that all threads are done? As you can
> see, I used a while loop, but I'm reaching in the dark, there.

Tids pass a message of type MsgType.LinkDead when they close.
I'm not entirely sure how to check this, as I have no experience with
std.concurrency.

There is also thread_joinAll in core.thread, which "Joins all non-daemon
threads that are currently running."


> - I have to read TDPL again: in thread, is there any way to get the Tid of the
> thread that spawned you apart from waiting for it to send its Tid?

No. However, there is a private TLS variable in std.concurrency that
refers to the Tid of the owner thread.

Also, you could consider sending it as part of the function parameters.


> - is there any way to broadcast a message to a list of threads?

Nope. Well, of course, one could make a function what does it.

-- 
Simen
July 11, 2010
On 11/07/2010 15:28, Philippe Sigaud wrote:

> - Why is a 2 threads version repeatedly thrice as fast as a no thread version?
> I thought it'd be only twice as fast.

Well if you are running on windows, my guess is that your 2nd cpu is completely free of tasks, so the thread running on that one is more efficient. I'm pretty sure that the windows task scheduler trys as much as possible to keep threads running on the last cpu they where on, to reduce cache flushes and memory paging.

On your first cpu you'll be paying for the task switching amongst the OS threads & programs. Even if they aren't using much actual cpu time, there's still a very high cost to perform the task swaps.

Your program is obviously very artificial; with a more normal program you'll see the ratio drop back down to less than twice as fast.

> - It's fun to see the process running under windows: first only 50% CPU (1
> thread), then it jumps to ~100%, while the memory is slowly growing. Then
> brutally back to 50% CPU (no thread).
> - 1024 threads are OK, but I cannot reach 2048. Why? What is the limit for the
> number of spawn I can do? Would that be different if each threads spawn two
> sub-threads instead of the main one generating 2048?

How many did you expect to run? Under 'doze each thread by default gets a megabyte of virtual address space for it's stack. So at about 1000 threads you'll be using all of your programs 2GB of address then the thread spawn will fail.

Not sure about linux, but a similar limitation must apply.

The rule of thumb is don't bother spawning more threads than you have cpus. You're just wasting resources mostly.

Though of course if it makes the program easier to write and maintain you may well decide to hell with the wasted resources.

-- 
My enormous talent is exceeded only by my outrageous laziness.
http://www.ssTk.co.uk
July 11, 2010
Hello div0,

> The rule of thumb is don't bother spawning more threads than you have
> cpus. You're just wasting resources mostly.
> 

You REALLY don't want more threads trying to run than you have cores. Threads in a wait state, are less of an issue, but they still use up resources.

-- 
... <IXOYE><



July 11, 2010
On Sun, Jul 11, 2010 at 20:00, div0 <div0@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:

> On 11/07/2010 15:28, Philippe Sigaud wrote:
>
>  - Why is a 2 threads version repeatedly thrice as fast as a no thread
>> version?
>> I thought it'd be only twice as fast.
>>
>
> Well if you are running on windows, my guess is that your 2nd cpu is completely free of tasks, so the thread running on that one is more efficient. I'm pretty sure that the windows task scheduler trys as much as possible to keep threads running on the last cpu they where on, to reduce cache flushes and memory paging.
>
> On your first cpu you'll be paying for the task switching amongst the OS threads & programs. Even if they aren't using much actual cpu time, there's still a very high cost to perform the task swaps.
>
> Your program is obviously very artificial; with a more normal program you'll see the ratio drop back down to less than twice as fast.
>
>
OK, I get it. Thanks for the explanation!


>
>  - It's fun to see the process running under windows: first only 50% CPU (1
>> thread), then it jumps to ~100%, while the memory is slowly growing. Then
>> brutally back to 50% CPU (no thread).
>> - 1024 threads are OK, but I cannot reach 2048. Why? What is the limit for
>> the
>> number of spawn I can do? Would that be different if each threads spawn
>> two
>> sub-threads instead of the main one generating 2048?
>>
>
> How many did you expect to run? Under 'doze each thread by default gets a megabyte of virtual address space for it's stack. So at about 1000 threads you'll be using all of your programs 2GB of address then the thread spawn will fail.
>

That's it, I can get much higher than 1000, for 2 GB of RAM.
Then it fail with a core.thread.ThreadException: could not create thread.

I tried this because I was reading an article on Scala's actors, where they talk about millions of actors. I guess they are quite different.



>
> Not sure about linux, but a similar limitation must apply.
>
> The rule of thumb is don't bother spawning more threads than you have cpus. You're just wasting resources mostly.
>

OK. So it means for joe average not much more than 2-8 threads?

Thanks!

Philippe


July 11, 2010
On 11/07/2010 20:00, BCS wrote:
> Hello div0,
>
>> The rule of thumb is don't bother spawning more threads than you have
>> cpus. You're just wasting resources mostly.
>>
>
> You REALLY don't want more threads trying to run than you have cores.
> Threads in a wait state, are less of an issue, but they still use up
> resources.
>

I think you're going a bit far there.

How many h/w threads does a core support?
1, 2, 4 or even 8 today (on power 7 machines).

And tomorrow?

You can only use basic rules of thumb with multi threading unless you are going to spend time and effort profiling your application on a specific machine or do some kind of run time profiling & configuration.

-- 
My enormous talent is exceeded only by my outrageous laziness.
http://www.ssTk.co.uk
July 11, 2010
On 11/07/2010 20:29, Philippe Sigaud wrote:
>
> On Sun, Jul 11, 2010 at 20:00, div0 <div0@users.sourceforge.net
> <mailto:div0@users.sourceforge.net>> wrote:
>
>     On 11/07/2010 15:28, Philippe Sigaud wrote:
>
>         - Why is a 2 threads version repeatedly thrice as fast as a no
>         thread version?
>         I thought it'd be only twice as fast.
>
>
>     Well if you are running on windows, my guess is that your 2nd cpu is
>     completely free of tasks, so the thread running on that one is more
>     efficient. I'm pretty sure that the windows task scheduler trys as
>     much as possible to keep threads running on the last cpu they where
>     on, to reduce cache flushes and memory paging.
>
>     On your first cpu you'll be paying for the task switching amongst
>     the OS threads & programs. Even if they aren't using much actual cpu
>     time, there's still a very high cost to perform the task swaps.
>
>     Your program is obviously very artificial; with a more normal
>     program you'll see the ratio drop back down to less than twice as fast.
>
>
> OK, I get it. Thanks for the explanation!
>
>
>         - It's fun to see the process running under windows: first only
>         50% CPU (1
>         thread), then it jumps to ~100%, while the memory is slowly
>         growing. Then
>         brutally back to 50% CPU (no thread).
>         - 1024 threads are OK, but I cannot reach 2048. Why? What is the
>         limit for the
>         number of spawn I can do? Would that be different if each
>         threads spawn two
>         sub-threads instead of the main one generating 2048?
>
>
>     How many did you expect to run? Under 'doze each thread by default
>     gets a megabyte of virtual address space for it's stack. So at about
>     1000 threads you'll be using all of your programs 2GB of address
>     then the thread spawn will fail.
>
>
> That's it, I can get much higher than 1000, for 2 GB of RAM.
> Then it fail with a core.thread.ThreadException: could not create thread.

There's always an OS specific limit on the number of real threads available to a process. It varies a lot but you probably shouldn't count on any more than a thousand or so. See the docs for whatever platform you want to run on.

>
> I tried this because I was reading an article on Scala's actors, where
> they talk about millions of actors. I guess they are quite different.

Yes a lot of languages use (what I call) fake threads. That is you have a real thread which the language run time uses to simulate multi threading.

So scala, erlang and various other languages do that and you can obviously role your own implementation if you really need.

However when using fake threads it's basically cooperative multi threading and unless the runtime specifically handles it (ie python or some other interpreted language), a fake thread could stall all the other threads that are running in the same real thread.

>
>
>     Not sure about linux, but a similar limitation must apply.
>
>     The rule of thumb is don't bother spawning more threads than you
>     have cpus. You're just wasting resources mostly.
>
>
> OK. So it means for joe average not much more than 2-8 threads?

Well, query for the number of cpus at runtime and then spawn that many threads. Even today, you can buy a PC with anywhere from 1 to 8 cores (and therefore 1 to 16 real threads running at the same time) so making a hard coded limit seems like a poor idea.

I'd have a configure file that specifies the number of threads so people can tune the performance for their specific machine and requirements. Even if you've got many cores, you end user might not actually want your application to hammer them all.

-- 
My enormous talent is exceeded only by my outrageous laziness.
http://www.ssTk.co.uk
July 11, 2010
Hello div0,

> On 11/07/2010 20:00, BCS wrote:
> 
>> Hello div0,
>> 
>>> The rule of thumb is don't bother spawning more threads than you
>>> have cpus. You're just wasting resources mostly.
>>> 
>> You REALLY don't want more threads trying to run than you have cores.
>> Threads in a wait state, are less of an issue, but they still use up
>> resources.
>> 
> I think you're going a bit far there.

In what way?

And In re-reading my post, I noticed it can be read it two ways. The way I intended it, is as a "yes and" statement: while often there is little to be gained by having more threads than cpus/cores, there is almost always nothing to be gained by having more thread trying to do stuff at the same time than you have cpus/cores to run them on.

-- 
... <IXOYE><



July 11, 2010
On 11/07/2010 21:43, BCS wrote:
> Hello div0,
>
>> On 11/07/2010 20:00, BCS wrote:
>>
>>> Hello div0,
>>>
>>>> The rule of thumb is don't bother spawning more threads than you
>>>> have cpus. You're just wasting resources mostly.
>>>>
>>> You REALLY don't want more threads trying to run than you have cores.
>>> Threads in a wait state, are less of an issue, but they still use up
>>> resources.
>>>
>> I think you're going a bit far there.
>
> In what way?

Sometimes it just makes your program design easier if you fork a process / spawn a thread; than trying to manage a thread pool and allocating work to a fixed number of threads. Programmer time is more expensive than cpu time and it depends who's paying the bill.

(hmm, haven't you said that before?)

> And In re-reading my post, I noticed it can be read it two ways. The way
> I intended it, is as a "yes and" statement: while often there is little
> to be gained by having more threads than cpus/cores, there is almost
> always nothing to be gained by having more thread trying to do stuff at
> the same time than you have cpus/cores to run them on.
>

Personally I'd never use more threads than cores as a program design, but I'm a performance whore. ;)

-- 
My enormous talent is exceeded only by my outrageous laziness.
http://www.ssTk.co.uk
July 11, 2010
On 11/07/2010 21:29, Philippe Sigaud wrote:
> I tried this because I was reading an article on Scala's actors, where
> they talk about millions of actors. I guess they are quite different.

Google for fibers or have a look at the dreactor project on dsource.
Tango has fiber support (afaik).

hth bjoern

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