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Re: Dealing with multi-processor or multi-core

To: REALbasic NUG <realbasic-nug at lists dot realsoftware dot com>
Subject: Re: Dealing with multi-processor or multi-core
From: Joe Strout <joe at inspiringapps dot com>
Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 09:04:43 -0600
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On May 30, 2008, at 8:39 AM, Glenn L. Austin wrote:

> But the NT scheduler (through XP) absolutely sucked in terms of
> permitting a single process to "starve" other processes.  That has
> been improved with Vista.

That wasn't the big problem, though.  Crashes and incorrect behavior  
were the problem.

> Design it to be multi-processor-aware, and you're far better off than
> multi-threaded.  When you start thinking "multiple processors" you
> start thinking about contention for resources (multiple processors
> attempting to access the same resource) and parallelizing your tasks
> by reducing "sync points" between multiple processes.
>
> Threading (and parallel processing) is something that a lot of people
> want to be able to do, but there are so many pitfalls that most people
> don't get it right.
>
> (I've been designing parallel processing systems since 1987 -- it's
> NOT as easy as it looks!)

Thanks for these comments, Glenn -- it matches my own experience as  
well.

Best,
- Joe

--
Joe Strout
Inspiring Applications, Inc.
http://www.InspiringApps.com



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