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Theoretical Computer Science
Volume 269, Issues 1-2, 28 October 2001, Pages 163-201
 
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doi:10.1016/S0304-3975(00)00412-6    How to Cite or Link Using DOI (Opens New Window)
Copyright © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Towards a practical snapshot algorithm*1, , *2

Yaron Rianya, Nir ShavitCorresponding Author Contact Information, E-mail The Corresponding Author, a, b and Dan Touitoua

a Department of Computer Science, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel b Sun Microsystems Laboratories, One Network Drive, Burlington MA 01803-0902, USA

Received 15 July 1999;
revised 13 July 2000;
accepted 30 October 2000.
Communicated by M. Mavronicolas.
Available online 12 October 2001.

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Abstract

An atomic snapshot memory is an implementation of a multiple-location shared memory that can be atomically read in its entirety without preventing concurrent writing. The design of wait-free implementations of atomic snapshot memories has been the subject of extensive theoretical research in recent years. This paper introduces the coordinated-collect algorithm, a novel wait-free atomic snapshot construction which we believe is a first step in taking snapshots from theory to practice. Unlike previous algorithms, it uses currently available multiprocessor synchronization operations to provide an algorithm that has only O(1) update complexity and O(n) scan complexity, with very small constants. We evaluated the performance of known snapshot algorithms for a collection of benchmarks on a simulated distributed shared-memory multiprocessor. Our empirical evidence suggests that coordinated-collect will outperform all known wait-free, lock-free, and locking snapshot algorithms in terms of overall throughput and latency.

Author Keywords: Shared memory multiprocessors; Wait-free synchronization; Memory snapshots; Atomic operations; Compare and swap


Theoretical Computer Science
Volume 269, Issues 1-2, 28 October 2001, Pages 163-201
 
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