Spin detection hardware for improved management of multithreaded systems

Journal Article (Journal Article)

Spinning is a synchronization mechanism commonly used in applications and operating systems. Excessive spinning, however, often indicates performance or correctness (e.g., livelock) problems. Detecting if applications and operating systems are spinning is essential for achieving high performance, especially in consolidated servers running virtual machines. Prior research has used source or binary instrumentation to detect spinning. However, these approaches place a significant burden on programmers and may even be infeasible in certain situations. In this paper, we propose efficient hardware to detect spinning in unmodified applications and operating systems. Based on this hardware, we develop 1) scheduling and power policies that adaptively manage resources for spinning threads, 2) system support that helps detect when a multithreaded program is livelocked, and 3) hardware performance counters that accurately reflect system performance. Using full-system simulation with SPEC OMP, SPLASH-2, and Wisconsin commercial workloads, we demonstrate that our mechanisms effectively improve the management of multithreaded systems. © 2006 IEEE.

Full Text

Duke Authors

Cited Authors

  • Li, T; Lebeck, AR; Sorin, DJ

Published Date

  • June 1, 2006

Published In

Volume / Issue

  • 17 / 6

Start / End Page

  • 508 - 521

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1045-9219

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1109/TPDS.2006.78

Citation Source

  • Scopus