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Date:      Fri, 10 Dec 1999 21:14:11 -0500 (EST)
From:      Chuck Robey <chuckr@picnic.mat.net>
To:        Nate Williams <nate@mt.sri.com>
Cc:        Arun Sharma <adsharma@sharmas.dhs.org>, freebsd-arch@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Thread scheduling
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.10.9912102103490.16082-100000@picnic.mat.net>
In-Reply-To: <199912110135.SAA23495@mt.sri.com>

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On Fri, 10 Dec 1999, Nate Williams wrote:

> > Why is it desireable?
> 
> It is desirable for effeciency reasons (if two threads are running on
> seperate CPU's, then twice as much work will get done), as well as the
> cache issues.  But, is making it a requirement desirable?  Not in my
> book.  (I may have misunderstood your 'desirable' statement previously
> by reading that making assuming that you were wondering if is desirable
> to make it a requirement, which is silly now that I think about it.)

OK, let me state it again.  I wasn't asking if it was a good thing to
share out threads among multiple processors, because the advantages of
using a multiple CPU system *as* a multiple CPU seem obvious enough not to
need asking.  I was asking to see if it would be a good thing to add a
strong bias to the system, in such a way as to make the co-scheduling of
threads among the different processors so that all processors that are
made available to the program's threads are executing in that address
space as the same moment in time.  Not a guarantee, but would it be a good
thing to have them "co-scheduled" (or a bias towards that likelihood).

I wasn't suggesting a *single* thread across multiple processors (as I
think Arun asked).  Yes, that would be silly.  Is what I asked also silly,
as a scheduling bias, not a guarantee or a requirement?  Or would it make
no real difference?

> 
> However, is it desirable to have multiple threads in a single process
> executing on multiple CPUs?  Of course, if the benefits don't outweight
> the costs in terms of complexity and such.

It's the simultaneity I am asking about.


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Chuck Robey                | Interests include C programming, Electronics,
213 Lakeside Dr. Apt. T-1  | communications, and signal processing.
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