[squeak-dev] Re: [ANN] Hydra VM: A multi-core capable Croquet VM
Andreas Raab
andreas.raab at gmx.de
Fri Feb 22 02:16:01 UTC 2008
Stephen Pair wrote:
> I must say, this is a really impressive development. I really think
> this is the right way to approach multi-core systems.
I agree. It's a stronger model than shared-state concurrency because you
model sets of objects (which is natural for the environment we're in).
The next step needs to be a set of tools that we can use to create
really small "worker images" (maybe 100k or less). At which point we not
only have the ability to, say, fork a few hundred of those (and take
care of Intels NextGen 80+ core CPUs ;-) but also get the minimal images
so many people are craving for and be able to load different versions of
code side-by-side and get a module system for free. Pretty exciting stuff.
Cheers,
- Andreas
> At work, we have a highly distributed system (some customers are running
> as many as 50 nodes with a mix of VW and C++ processes on each).
> Occassionally some of our people in the field or customers complain
> that any one process isn't taking advantage of the multi-core
> architectures they run on. After reminding them that in fact we are
> using those CPUs because we are running many processes on those nodes,
> we also highlight the fact that our C++ component, which utilizes many
> threads (in a retrospectively naive way), actually degrades in
> performance when you drop it onto a multi-core machine (and it degrades
> badly). All those highly active threads contending for the same shared
> memory isn't quite so good. ;)
>
> - Stephen
>
> On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 8:22 PM, Igor Stasenko <siguctua at gmail.com
> <mailto:siguctua at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> On 22/02/2008, Andreas Raab <andreas.raab at gmx.de
> <mailto:andreas.raab at gmx.de>> wrote:
> > Stephen Pair wrote:
> > > How does one start a second image (or does it do this
> automatically
> > > based on the number of cores)?
> >
> >
> > Load the HydraVM package and execute:
> >
> > HydraVM saveAsHeadlessImage: 'core.image'
> >
> > This will save the current image in a form ready for loading it
> in the
> > background. When you've saved it, start it via:
> >
> > HydraVM loadAndRunNewImage: 'core.image'
> >
> >
> > > On my machine, it seems to run ok for about a minute or so and
> then
> > > freeze up (this is on a Windows XP core duo machine).
> >
> >
> > Interesting. Others have mentioned the same effect. I'm using a
> slightly
> > older version of the VM which seems a little more stable (but I know
> > Igor is looking into the problem).
> >
>
> This was introduced due to my latest changes. Sorry guys i didn't
> meant that. :)
> I had freezing problems on my own PC, and did some fixes to eliminate
> that before releasing an update. As it turned out, something in
> environment (Windows?) causing VM to freeze, because i tested same
> images and with same VM binaries and it worked just fine on my PC.
>
>
> > Cheers,
> >
> > - Andreas
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Igor Stasenko AKA sig.
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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