Synchronization (computer science): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:19, 28 October 2024

Revision as of 04:03, 19 November 2024

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Synchronization takes more time than computation, especially in distributed computing. Reducing synchronization drew attention from computer scientists for decades. Whereas it becomes an increasingly significant problem recently as the gap between the improvement of computing and latency increases. Experiments have shown that (global) communications due to synchronization on distributed computers takes a dominated share in a sparse iterative solver.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Minimizing synchronizations in sparse iterative solvers for distributed supercomputers |author=Shengxin, Zhu and Tongxiang Gu and Xingping Liu|journal=Computers & Mathematics with Applications|volume=67|issue=1|pages=199–209|year=2014|doi=10.1016/j.camwa.2013.11.008|doi-access=free}}</ref> This problem is receiving increasing attention after the emergence of a new benchmark metric, the High Performance Conjugate Gradient(HPCG),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hpcg-benchmark.org/|title=HPCG Benchmark}}</ref> for ranking the top 500 supercomputers.

==Problems==

==Classic problems==

The following are some classic problems of synchronization:

* [[Producer–consumer problem|The Producer–Consumer Problem]] (also called The Bounded Buffer Problem);

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These problems are used to test nearly every newly proposed synchronization scheme or primitive.

Merging data from two processes can often incur significantly higher costs compared to processing the same data on a single thread, potentially by two or more orders of magnitude due to overheads such as inter-process communication and synchronization. <ref>{{Cite book |title=Operating System Concepts |isbn=978-0470128725}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Computer Organization and Design MIPS Edition: The Hardware/Software Interface (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Architecture and Design) |publisher=Morgan Kaufmann |isbn=978-0124077263}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Parallel Programming: Techniques and Applications Using Networked Workstations and Parallel Computers |publisher=Pearson |isbn=978-0131405639}}</ref>

==Hardware synchronization==