[gambit-list] Qwaq releases Hydra multi-core Squeak VM « The

James Long longster at gmail.com
Mon Feb 25 13:24:15 EST 2008


Native threads have been on Gambit's wish-list for a while.

http://dynamo.iro.umontreal.ca/~gambit/wiki/index.php/Wish_list#Native_.2F_pre-emptive_threads

As the page states, "Support for multiple processes is good but pales
in comparison to light weight, native, pre-emptive thread support."  I
agree with this.  Haskell is able to schedule its threads on OS
threads, but it's probably significantly more difficult to do that in
Scheme because of mutation.  I am unqualified to offer a solution for
native threading, but I would love to see them in Gambit if it's
technically possible.

On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 10:35 AM, Joel Borggrén-Franck
<joel.borggren.franck at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 3:04 PM, Jeff Read <bitwize at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  >  The Hydra VM seems to work, if I read the description right, by
>  >  running a separate Squeak image on each core.
>  >
>  >  This is not the multicore solution we are looking for.
>  >
>
>  What are we looking for? The capability for gambit to mux gambit
>  continuations over multiple OS threads seems like a bad conceptual fit
>  in my mind. But IIRC Erlang got a multithreaded VM's some releases
>  ago, so some have chosen that path.
>
>  Running a separate gambit on each core and hiding it all under termite
>  glue to make it appear as one image, which i believe is the gambit
>  counterpart to what you are not looking for, is IMHO way neater.
>
>
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-- 
James Long
Coptix, Inc.
longster at gmail.com



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