Re: ||ism

[manor]

>> Is putting Posix threads into the Swarm kernel feasible?
>
>The newer ObjC runtime has a thread interface integrated within it; there is
>a posix thread backend plus backends for various OS dependent threads
>implementations like Win32, Solaris, SGI, etc.

Could that interface be used to make an arbitrary object thread-safe?
(a-la Java where there is a lock per object that the programmer doesn't
have to code etc. and which provides mutual exclusion with the ability
to make recursive calls).

I'm asking because the current implementations of collections, GUI etc.
are not thread-safe (as far as I know), and this might provide a quick
and dirty way to make the entire thing thread-safe (maybe by messing
with the objc core message-passing routine).

> I think Swarm should focus on moderate ||ism on SMPs, rather than highly
> parallel MPPs.

Yeah -- with all the bi-quad-sex-pentiums out there, it should become
easier and easier for researchers to get their hands on SMP hardware
(which would be easier to port to, and more effective than NOWs).
Plus, with all the really cool high-end DSM machines it seems like
(distributed) shared memory has made a come-back (the top 500 list is
full of Origins :)

Manor.


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