Re: NG Lush and concurrency

Hi,

> 
> Multi-core architectures seem to be becoming the norm in desktop
> machines. To take advantage of multi-processor and multi-core 
> architectures we need language constructs for expressing that
> certain operations may be carried out in parallel or change the
> semantics of existing operations where this can safely be done
> (many array operations may be carried out in parallel).
> On the one hand.
> 
> On the other hand, a next generation lush runtime system should
> support parallel execution. How would that fit in here?
> Would we have multiple stack machines, running in different
> threads, plus a thread for the garbage collector, and a scheduler
> that assigns chunks of computations to idle stack machines?
> 

I can't see why this would be absolutely necessary. Parallel execution can
be carried out via multi-process system implementations using interprocess
communication (IPC), which Lush already has.

Multi-process systems are excellent for this kind of work. Take for example
the QNX real-time operating system. It uses a microkernel architecture along
with a synchronous IPC mechanism (with easy to use C function calls for
send/receive/reply; Lush has something along these lines). It has real-world
applications in mission critical apps: fighter jets, medical equipment, etc.

As far as multiprocessor/core goes, in IPC that becomes more of an OS responsibility
than a programmer one. You can also use the MPI interface (in Lush) in a similar way.
All that need be done is set up a system to handle the processing in a distributed
client/server, peer-to-peer, or other configuration.

This is something you can do right now, without having to mess with threads (which 
are really lightweight processes anyway). Much easier to debug and there will be a 
lot less need to go through compile-test-debug cycles (if any need at all).

Raymond



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