Contention in shared memory algorithmsContention in shared memory algorithms

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 Author Dwork, Cynthia ♦ Herlihy, Maurice ♦ Waarts, Orli Source ACM Digital Library Content type Text Publisher Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) File Format PDF Copyright Year ©1997 Language English
 Subject Domain (in DDC) Computer science, information & general works ♦ Data processing & computer science Subject Keyword Contention ♦ Counting networks ♦ Mutual exclusion Abstract Most complexity measures for concurrent algorithms for asynchronous shared-memory architectures focus on process steps and memory consumption. In practice, however, performance of multiprocessor algorithms is heavily influenced by $\textit{contention},$ the extent to which processess access the same location at the same time. Nevertheless, even though contention is one of the principal considerations affecting the performance of real algorithms on real multiprocessors, there are no formal tools for analyzing the contention of asynchronous shared-memory algorithms.This paper introduces the first formal complexity model for contention in shared-memory multiprocessors. We focus on the standard multiprocessor architecture in which $\textit{n}$ asynchronous processes communicate by applying read, write, and $\textit{read-modify-write}$ operations to a shared memory. To illustrate the utility of our model, we use it to derive two kinds of results: (1) lower bounds on contention for well-known basic problems such as agreement and mutual exclusion, and (2) trade-offs between the length of the critical path (maximal number of accesses to shared variables performed by a single process in executing the algorithm) and contention for these algorithms. Furthermore, we give the first formal contention analysis of a variety of counting networks, a class of concurrent data structures inplementing shared counters. Experiments indicate that certain counting networks outperform conventional single-variable counters at high levels of contention. Our analysis provides the first formal model explaining this phenomenon. ISSN 00045411 Age Range 18 to 22 years ♦ above 22 year Educational Use Research Education Level UG and PG Learning Resource Type Article Publisher Date 1997-11-01 Publisher Place New York e-ISSN 1557735X Journal Journal of the ACM (JACM) Volume Number 44 Issue Number 6 Page Count 27 Starting Page 779 Ending Page 805

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Source: ACM Digital Library