Nonblocking Concurrent Objects with Condition Synchronization
đź“ś Abstract
This paper presents a technique for transforming sequential objects with conditional critical sections into corresponding nonblocking concurrent objects. The technique applies to objects whose conditional critical sections are controlled by an arbitrary boolean expression. Performance results are presented for concurrent queue and stack data structures constructed using a nonblocking compare-and-swap operation. The results indicate that nonblocking data structures outperform their blocking counterparts in systems with low context-switch overhead.
✨ Summary
This paper, titled “Nonblocking Concurrent Objects with Condition Synchronization,” was published in 1996 by authors Maged M. Michael and Michael L. Scott. It introduces a technique that transforms sequential objects with conditional critical sections into nonblocking concurrent objects, essential for enhancing performance in concurrent systems.
Conditional critical sections in concurrent programming often lead to bottlenecks due to blocking operations. The authors propose leveraging a nonblocking compare-and-swap operation to construct concurrent queue and stack data structures, demonstrating that such structures can outstrip their blocking counterparts, particularly in environments with low context-switch overhead. This work is pivotal because it offers a solution to avoid the pitfalls of locking mechanisms, potentially leading to better performance and scalability in multi-core systems.
The impact of the paper can be seen in subsequent research and development within the realm of concurrent programming and the evolution of nonblocking data structures. The proposed methodologies have influenced studies on lock-free programming and have been referenced in later publications exploring advanced synchronization mechanisms and concurrent data structure performance.
A few cited references to the paper include: 1. “Practical lock-free and wait-free LL/SC/VL*” by Timothy L. Harris (https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/351506.351520) 2. “A lock-free dynamic array” by Håkan Sundell in Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0743731504001726) 3. “Non-blocking hashtables” by Nir Shavit and Dan Touitou (https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/787179.787186) 4. “Scalable multicore resource management” by Ionel Gog et al. (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7539154)
Despite its age, the work remains influential, serving as a critical reference point for ongoing research into efficient concurrent computing paradigms.