Read Copy Update

From: Doug Rabson (dfr_at_nlsystems.com)
Date: 02/18/04

  • Next message: Jeff Roberson: "Re: Read Copy Update" 
    To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 20:56:46 +0000

    So, I was reading the latest installment of the SCO soap on slashdot
    today (bizarre - they seem to be claiming that they own all code that
    was ever linked to a System V kernel) and I ended up trying to figure
    out exactly what this RCU thing is that they claim is infringing their
    right to obtain money with menaces.

    I read one of the original papers at
    http://www.rdrop.com/users/paulmck/paper/rclockpdcsproof.pdf and its a
    surprisingly simple idea. Basically for certain data structures which
    are read-mostly, you can make the entire read path lock-free at the
    expense of making updates quite a bit more expensive. They claim that
    its much faster than reader-writer locks both for light contention and
    for heavy contention.

    I imagine that a FreeBSD implementation of RCU wouldn't actually be too
    hard and it might be well worth it as an alternative way of managing
    concurrency, e.g. for the routing cache and the name cache (and probably
    lots of other things).

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  • Next message: Jeff Roberson: "Re: Read Copy Update"