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Thread Migration in a Parallel Graph Reducer

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Implementation of Functional Languages (IFL 2002)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2670))

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Abstract

To support high level coordination, parallel functional languages need effective and automatic work distribution mechanisms. Many implementations distribute potential work, i.e. sparks or closures, but there is good evidence that the performance of certain classes of program can be improved if current work, or threads, are also distributed. Migrating a thread incurs significant execution cost and requires careful scheduling and an elaborate implementation.

This paper describes the design, implementation and performance of thread migration in the GUM runtime system underlying Glasgow parallel Haskell (GpH). Measurements of nontrivial programs on a highlatency cluster architecture show that thread migration can improve the performance of data-parallel and divide-and-conquer programs with low processor utilisation. Thread migration also reduces the variation in performance results obtained in separate executions of a program. Moreover, migration does not incur significant overheads if there are no migratable threads, or on a single processor. However, for programs that already exhibit good processor utilisation, migration may increase performance variability and very occasionally reduce performance.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, UK

    André Rauber Du Bois & Phil Trinder

  2. Institut für Informatik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, D-80538, Munchen, Germany

    Hans-Wolfgang Loidl

Authors
  1. André Rauber Du Bois
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  2. Hans-Wolfgang Loidl
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  3. Phil Trinder
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Informática Departamento Sistemas Informáticos y Programación, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Peña

  2. Software Engineering and Management, IT-University in Gothenburg, Box 8718, 40275, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Thomas Arts

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© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Du Bois, A.R., Loidl, HW., Trinder, P. (2003). Thread Migration in a Parallel Graph Reducer. In: Peña, R., Arts, T. (eds) Implementation of Functional Languages. IFL 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2670. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44854-3_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44854-3_13

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-40190-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44854-9

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