Re: Threads, Sockets and OSX

Peter Hickman <[email protected]> wrote:
> Using RVM on OSX I've tested this for 2.3.3 and 2.5.1 with no significant
> change in the behaviour. I did note that under 2.5.1 the freeze ups were
> shorter and the periods of work were longer but the picket fence CPU usage
> remains (100% for 15 seconds, 0% for 10 seconds, repeat)

So that might be down to the Mutex implementation being less OS-dependent
in 2.5.

Care to give 2.6 preview3 a try?

> I'm wondering, does Ruby implement it's own threading system or call out to
> the underlying OS services. This could be down to how OSX schedules stuff
> rather than a Ruby version issue

Ruby uses native threads and locking mechanisms; but the GVL
limits their ability of threads to run in parallel to only a few
safepoints.  The GVL is a custom lock designed for
high-contention.  It's implemented using normal pthreads
primitives, but optimized for contention, whereas normal
pthreads mutexes are optimized for low contention.

> Perhaps I need to implement this in Python and see if I get the same
> behaviour

AFAIK, Python's GVL is/was similar to ours, but had a fixed timeslice
with more wakeups and higher power consumption as a result.

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