Changes in doc/theses/thierry_delisle_PhD/thesis/text/runtime.tex [9153e53:50202fa]

File:

• doc/theses/thierry_delisle_PhD/thesis/text/runtime.tex (modified) (3 diffs)

doc/theses/thierry_delisle_PhD/thesis/text/runtime.tex

@@ -11 +11 @@
 
 \section{Clusters}
-\CFA allows the option to group user-level threading, in the form of clusters. Both \glspl{thrd} and \glspl{proc} belong to a specific cluster. \Glspl{thrd} are only be scheduled onto \glspl{proc} in the same cluster and scheduling is done independently of other clusters. Figure~\ref{fig:system} shows an overview of the \CFA runtime, which allows programmers to tightly control parallelism. It also opens the door to handling effects like NUMA, by pining clusters to a specific NUMA node\footnote{This is not currently implemented in \CFA, but the only hurdle left is creating a generic interface for cpu masks.}.
+\CFA allows the option to group user-level threading, in the form of clusters. Both \glspl{thrd} and \glspl{proc} belong to a specific cluster. \Glspl{thrd} are only scheduled onto \glspl{proc} in the same cluster and scheduling is done independently of other clusters. Figure~\ref{fig:system} shows an overview of the \CFA runtime, which allows programmers to tightly control parallelism. It also opens the door to handling effects like NUMA, by pining clusters to a specific NUMA node\footnote{This is not currently implemented in \CFA, but the only hurdle left is creating a generic interface for cpu masks.}.
 
 \begin{figure}
@@ -25 +25 @@
 
 \section{\glsxtrshort{io}}\label{prev:io}
-Prior to this work, the \CFA runtime did not add any particular support for \glsxtrshort{io} operations. %\CFA being built on C, this means that,
-While all I/O operations available in C are available in \CFA, \glsxtrshort{io} operations are designed for the POSIX threading model~\cite{pthreads}. Using these 1:1 threading operations in an M:N threading model means I/O operations block \glspl{proc} instead of \glspl{thrd}. While this can work in certain cases, it limits the number of concurrent operations to the number of \glspl{proc} rather than \glspl{thrd}. It also means deadlock can occur because all \glspl{proc} are blocked even if at least one \gls{thrd} is ready to run. A simple example of this type of deadlock would be as follows:
+Prior to this work, the \CFA runtime did not add any particular support for \glsxtrshort{io} operations. While all \glsxtrshort{io} operations available in C are available in \CFA, \glsxtrshort{io} operations are designed for the POSIX threading model~\cite{pthreads}. Using these 1:1 threading operations in an M:N threading model means \glsxtrshort{io} operations block \glspl{proc} instead of \glspl{thrd}. While this can work in certain cases, it limits the number of concurrent operations to the number of \glspl{proc} rather than \glspl{thrd}. It also means deadlock can occur because all \glspl{proc} are blocked even if at least one \gls{thrd} is ready to run. A simple example of this type of deadlock would be as follows:
+
 \begin{quote}
 Given a simple network program with 2 \glspl{thrd} and a single \gls{proc}, one \gls{thrd} sends network requests to a server and the other \gls{thrd} waits for a response from the server. If the second \gls{thrd} races ahead, it may wait for responses to requests that have not been sent yet. In theory, this should not be a problem, even if the second \gls{thrd} waits, because the first \gls{thrd} is still ready to run and should be able to get CPU time to send the request. With M:N threading, while the first \gls{thrd} is ready, the lone \gls{proc} \emph{cannot} run the first \gls{thrd} if it is blocked in the \glsxtrshort{io} operation of the second \gls{thrd}. If this happen, the system is in a synchronization deadlock\footnote{In this example, the deadlocked could be resolved if the server sends unprompted messages to the client. However, this solution is not general and may not be appropriate even in this simple case.}.
 \end{quote}
-Therefore, one of the objective of this work is to introduce \emph{User-Level \glsxtrshort{io}}, like \glslink{uthrding}{User-Level \emph{Threading}} blocks \glspl{thrd} rather than \glspl{proc} when doing \glsxtrshort{io} operations, which entails multiplexing the \glsxtrshort{io} operations of many \glspl{thrd} onto fewer \glspl{proc}. This multiplexing requires that a single \gls{proc} be able to execute multiple I/O operations in parallel. This requirement cannot be done with operations that block \glspl{proc}, \ie \glspl{kthrd}, since the first operation would prevent starting new operations for its blocking duration. Executing I/O operations in parallel requires \emph{asynchronous} \glsxtrshort{io}, sometimes referred to as \emph{non-blocking}, since the \gls{kthrd} does not block.
 
-\section{Interoperating with C}
+Therefore, one of the objective of this work is to introduce \emph{User-Level \glsxtrshort{io}}, like \glslink{uthrding}{User-Level \emph{Threading}} blocks \glspl{thrd} rather than \glspl{proc} when doing \glsxtrshort{io} operations, which entails multiplexing the \glsxtrshort{io} operations of many \glspl{thrd} onto fewer \glspl{proc}. This multiplexing requires that a single \gls{proc} be able to execute multiple \glsxtrshort{io} operations in parallel. This requirement cannot be done with operations that block \glspl{proc}, \ie \glspl{kthrd}, since the first operation would prevent starting new operations for its blocking duration. Executing \glsxtrshort{io} operations in parallel requires \emph{asynchronous} \glsxtrshort{io}, sometimes referred to as \emph{non-blocking}, since the \gls{kthrd} does not block.
+
+\section{Interoperating with \texttt{C}}
 While \glsxtrshort{io} operations are the classical example of operations that block \glspl{kthrd}, the non-blocking challenge extends to all blocking system-calls. The POSIX standard states~\cite[\S~2.9.1]{POSIX17}:
 \begin{quote}
@@ -44 +45 @@
 \begin{enumerate}
         \item Precisely identifying blocking C calls is difficult.
-        \item Introducing new code can have a significant impact on general performance.
+        \item Introducing control points code can have a significant impact on general performance.
 \end{enumerate}
-Because of these consequences, this work does not attempt to ``sandbox'' calls to C. Therefore, it is possible for an unidentified library calls to block a \gls{kthrd} leading to deadlocks in \CFA's M:N threading model, which would not occur in a traditional 1:1 threading model. Currently, all M:N thread systems interacting with UNIX without sandboxing suffer from this problem but manage to work very well in the majority of applications. Therefore, a complete solution to this problem is outside the scope of this thesis.
+Because of these consequences, this work does not attempt to ``sandbox'' calls to C. Therefore, it is possible calls from an unidentified library will block a \gls{kthrd} leading to deadlocks in \CFA's M:N threading model, which would not occur in a traditional 1:1 threading model. Currently, all M:N thread systems interacting with UNIX without sandboxing suffer from this problem but manage to work very well in the majority of applications. Therefore, a complete solution to this problem is outside the scope of this thesis.