Threads and memory management

[Johannes Waldmann]

Dear all,

I was wondering what is the current status of the ghc RTS
with respect to threading. Is it true that the allocator
and deallocator (garbage collector) are still single-threaded?


I made this example:

import Control.Concurrent
import Control.Concurrent.QSemN

primes1 = sieve [ 2 .. ]
primes2 = 2 : sieve [ 3, 5 .. ]

sieve (x : ys) = x : sieve ( filter ( \ y -> 0 < y `mod` x ) ys )

main = do
     s <- newQSemN 0
     forkIO $ do print $ sum $ take 10000 primes1 ; signalQSemN s 1
     forkIO $ do print $ sum $ take 10000 primes2 ; signalQSemN s 1
     waitQSemN s 2

Between the two computations, I see absolutely
no data dependencies. So the naive expectation is that using two threads
(in the RTS, on a multicore machine) gives half the execution time.

I compiled with  ghc-6.10.2 -o Par -O2 Par.hs -threaded
and when I run with +RTS -N2 (instead of N1),
I get my CPU load at 140 % (instead of 100)
but the total run time (wall clock) stays nearly constant
(i.e. CPU time goes up).


For reference, I'm pretty sure a similar thing happens
with the current mono implementation (they use Boehm GC and
that does not know about C#/CIL threads ?), and this is preventing
multi-core speedups in "straightforward" programs
(that have no data dependencies, but lots of object creation,
e.g. via (hidden) Enumerators and such.)


Well, then, if the two Haskell threads are (nearly) completely
independent like the above, it would be better to compile and run
two separate executables and have them communicate via the OS  (pipe or
port). But that shouldn't be!  (the OS being better than Haskell)

Is there was a way of partitioning the memory (managed by the ghc RTS)
in totally independent parts that each have their stand-alone
memory management. Of course then all communication
had to go via some Control.Concurrent.Chan,
but that should be fine, if there is little of them.


Well, just some thought. This idea can't be new?
Tell me why it couldn't possibly work ...

J.W.


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