>> Thanks for the thorough explanation. I'm actually developing a fast socket >> server that will be using a storage backend library to store thousands of >> millions of "small objects" (basically less than 1K) in a large optimized >> hash table. This storage layer maintains a large objects cache in memory >> (so to not hit the HD again on next read for the same object), this memory >> cache not being share-able across processes. > > If it isn't sharable across processes (using, well, shared memory) then > it's not sharable between threads either, me thinks. The difference is > simply that threads force shared memory for everything.
It's a simple in-memory malloc-ed cache, no shared memory is involved (i.e. no shmem() and stuff). > Now, threads will likely be slower, but easier, since pthreads offers > portable and widely-implemented inter-thread locking, while e.g. > posix/pthread inter-process locking is not as widely implemented. > >> FYI I followed your previous advice and already migrated to a lightweight >> memory queue + simple pthread mutex + ev_async_send(), instead of >> using pipes. The performance gain is substantial (I went from 15kreq/s to >> 19-20kreq/s up, i.e. more than 20% improvement), and it seems the whole > > That's great to hear :) > >> server uses less CPU in general (less system calls and kernel/user-space >> switches I guess). I've tried playing with thread/core affinity, but no >> conclusive >> result sofar. > > As long as your workers do little to shared (or unshared) data structures, > do not change machine state too often, then threads shouldn't do badly at > all, and will be about as difficult, or easier, than using processes. Pierre-Yves _______________________________________________ libev mailing list libev@lists.schmorp.de http://lists.schmorp.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/libev