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Test And Test-and-set
In computer architecture, the test-and-set CPU instruction (or instruction sequence) is designed to implement mutual exclusion in multiprocessor environments. Although a correct lock can be implemented with test-and-set, the ''test and test-and-set'' optimization lowers resource contention caused by bus locking, especially cache coherency protocol overhead on contended locks. Given a lock: ''boolean'' locked := false ''// shared lock variable'' the entry protocol is: procedure EnterCritical() and the exit protocol is: procedure ExitCritical() The difference to the simple test-and-set protocol is the additional spin-loop (the ''test'' in ''test and test-and-set'') at the start of the entry protocol, which utilizes ordinary load instructions. The load in this loop executes with less overhead compared to an atomic operation (resp. a load-exclusive instruction). E.g., on a system utilizing the MESI cache coherency protocol, the cache line being loaded is moved to the S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short-circuit Evaluation
Short-circuit evaluation, minimal evaluation, or McCarthy evaluation (after John McCarthy) is the semantics of some Boolean operators in some programming languages in which the second argument is executed or evaluated only if the first argument does not suffice to determine the value of the expression: when the first argument of the AND function evaluates to false, the overall value must be false; and when the first argument of the OR function evaluates to true, the overall value must be true. In programming languages with lazy evaluation (Lisp, Perl, Haskell), the usual Boolean operators short-circuit. In others ( Ada, Java, Delphi), both short-circuit and standard Boolean operators are available. For some Boolean operations, like ''exclusive or'' (XOR), it is impossible to short-circuit, because both operands are always needed to determine a result. Short-circuit operators are, in effect, control structures rather than simple arithmetic operators, as they are not strict. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fetch-and-add
In computer science, the fetch-and-add (FAA) CPU instruction atomically increments the contents of a memory location by a specified value. That is, fetch-and-add performs the following operation: increment the value at address by , where is a memory location and is some value, and return the original value at . in such a way that if this operation is executed by one process in a concurrent system, no other process will ever see an intermediate result. Fetch-and-add can be used to implement concurrency control structures such as mutex locks and semaphores. Overview The motivation for having an atomic fetch-and-add is that operations that appear in programming languages as are not safe in a concurrent system, where multiple processes or threads are running concurrently (either in a multi-processor system, or preemptively scheduled onto some single-core systems). The reason is that such an operation is actually implemented as multiple machine instructions: # load in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Test-and-set
In computer science, the test-and-set instruction is an instruction used to write (set) 1 to a memory location and return its old value as a single atomic (i.e., non- interruptible) operation. The caller can then "test" the result to see if the state was changed by the call. If multiple processes may access the same memory location, and if a process is currently performing a test-and-set, no other process may begin another test-and-set until the first process's test-and-set is finished. A central processing unit (CPU) may use a test-and-set instruction offered by another electronic component, such as dual-port RAM; a CPU itself may also offer a test-and-set instruction. A lock Lock(s) or Locked may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainme ... can be built using an atomic test-and-set instructio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mutual Exclusion
In computer science, mutual exclusion is a property of concurrency control, which is instituted for the purpose of preventing race conditions. It is the requirement that one thread of execution never enters a critical section while a concurrent thread of execution is already accessing said critical section, which refers to an interval of time during which a thread of execution accesses a shared resource or shared memory. The shared resource is a data object, which two or more concurrent threads are trying to modify (where two concurrent read operations are permitted but, no two concurrent write operations or one read and one write are permitted, since it leads to data inconsistency). Mutual exclusion algorithms ensure that if a process is already performing write operation on a data object ritical sectionno other process/thread is allowed to access/modify the same object until the first process has finished writing upon the data object ritical sectionand released the obj ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parallel Programming
Parallel computing is a type of computing, computation in which many calculations or Process (computing), processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. There are several different forms of parallel computing: Bit-level parallelism, bit-level, Instruction-level parallelism, instruction-level, Data parallelism, data, and task parallelism. Parallelism has long been employed in high-performance computing, but has gained broader interest due to the physical constraints preventing frequency scaling.S.V. Adve ''et al.'' (November 2008)"Parallel Computing Research at Illinois: The UPCRC Agenda" (PDF). Parallel@Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "The main techniques for these performance benefits—increased clock frequency and smarter but increasingly complex architectures—are now hitting the so-called power wall. The computer industry has accepted that future performance inc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parallel Processor
Parallel computing is a type of computation in which many calculations or processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. There are several different forms of parallel computing: bit-level, instruction-level, data, and task parallelism. Parallelism has long been employed in high-performance computing, but has gained broader interest due to the physical constraints preventing frequency scaling.S.V. Adve ''et al.'' (November 2008)"Parallel Computing Research at Illinois: The UPCRC Agenda" (PDF). Parallel@Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "The main techniques for these performance benefits—increased clock frequency and smarter but increasingly complex architectures—are now hitting the so-called power wall. The computer industry has accepted that future performance increases must largely come from increasing the number of processors (or cores) on a die, rather than mak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Concurrent Programming
Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a legal opinion which supports the conclusion, though not always the reasoning, of the majority. * Concurrent estate, a concept in property law * Concurrent resolution, a legislative measure passed by both chambers of the United States Congress * Concurrent sentences, in criminal law, periods of imprisonment that are served simultaneously Computing * Concurrency (computer science), the property of program, algorithm, or problem decomposition into order-independent or partially-ordered units * Concurrent computing, the overlapping execution of multiple interacting computational tasks * Concurrence (quantum computing), a measure used in quantum information theory * Concurrent Computer Corporation, an American computer systems manufactur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
System Programming
Systems programming, or system programming, is the activity of programming computer system software. The primary distinguishing characteristic of systems programming when compared to application programming is that application programming aims to produce software which provides services to the user directly (e.g. word processor), whereas systems programming aims to produce software and software platforms which provide services to other software, are performance constrained, or both (e.g. operating systems, computational science applications, game engines, industrial automation, and software as a service applications). Systems programming requires a great degree of hardware awareness. Its goal is to achieve efficient use of available resources, either because the software itself is performance-critical or because even small efficiency improvements directly transform into significant savings of time or money. Overview The following attributes characterize systems programming: * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Optimization (computer Science)
In computer science, program optimization, code optimization, or software optimization is the process of modifying a software system to make some aspect of it work more algorithmic efficiency, efficiently or use fewer resources. In general, a computer program may be optimized so that it executes more rapidly, or to make it capable of operating with less Computer data storage, memory storage or other resources, or draw less power. Overview Although the term "optimization" is derived from "optimum", achieving a truly optimal system is rare in practice, which is referred to as superoptimization. Optimization typically focuses on improving a system with respect to a specific quality metric rather than making it universally optimal. This often leads to trade-offs, where enhancing one metric may come at the expense of another. One popular example is space-time tradeoff, reducing a program’s execution time by increasing its memory consumption. Conversely, in scenarios where memory is l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Programming Language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually defined by a formal language. Languages usually provide features such as a type system, Variable (computer science), variables, and mechanisms for Exception handling (programming), error handling. An Programming language implementation, implementation of a programming language is required in order to Execution (computing), execute programs, namely an Interpreter (computing), interpreter or a compiler. An interpreter directly executes the source code, while a compiler produces an executable program. Computer architecture has strongly influenced the design of programming languages, with the most common type (imperative languages—which implement operations in a specified order) developed to perform well on the popular von Neumann architecture. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Test-and-set
In computer science, the test-and-set instruction is an instruction used to write (set) 1 to a memory location and return its old value as a single atomic (i.e., non- interruptible) operation. The caller can then "test" the result to see if the state was changed by the call. If multiple processes may access the same memory location, and if a process is currently performing a test-and-set, no other process may begin another test-and-set until the first process's test-and-set is finished. A central processing unit (CPU) may use a test-and-set instruction offered by another electronic component, such as dual-port RAM; a CPU itself may also offer a test-and-set instruction. A lock Lock(s) or Locked may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainme ... can be built using an atomic test-and-set instructio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
