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Running 100,000 Parallel Threads

Posted by michael on from the when-one-isn't-enough dept.

An anonymous reader writes "This story explains how the latest Linux development kernel is now able to start and stop over 100,000 threads in parallel in only 2 seconds (about 14 minutes 58 seconds faster than with earlier Linux kernels)! Much of this impressive work is thanks to Ingo Molnar, author of the O(1) scheduler recently merged with the 2.5 Linux development kernel."

20 of 387 comments (clear)

  1. Hold this thread while I walk away by DoctorHibbert · · Score: 3, Funny

    The linux song

    --
    Arbitrary sig
  2. 100,000 Linux threads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    this image springs to mind

    1. Re:100,000 Linux threads by notanatheist · · Score: 2, Funny

      are those M$ employees looking for code?

  3. Win ME Kicks that sorry statistic!!!! by SlimFastForYou · · Score: 4, Funny

    It takes two seconds to start 100,000 threads???? Piff! With my ME computer, It doesn't matter how many parallel threads I am running... I can stop them all instantly by simply attempting to use my computer :P.

    1. Re:Win ME Kicks that sorry statistic!!!! by CoolVibe · · Score: 4, Funny
      Pff... I can start a million threads on my FreeBSD box and stop them all in an instant...

      ...by hitting the reset button.

  4. If you want to destroy my boxen. . . by endeitzslash · · Score: 3, Funny

    Launch 100,000 threads while I walk away. . .

    OK I'll shut up now.

  5. Re:I'm only a humble C programmer, but.... by SlimFastForYou · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just wait until Spyware For Linux(TM) comes out... With Bonzai Buddy For Linux(TM), Real Center For Linux(TM), XMMS Agent(TM), Linux Messenger(TM), Linux Update(TM), and FindFast for OpenOffice.org(TM). Then you will know why 100,000 parallel threads in two seconds is a good thing :P.

  6. Great news! by zensonic · · Score: 2, Funny

    So now I'm able to open up 100.000 pr0n pictures in just 2 sec. Ubercool ;-)

    --
    Thomas S. Iversen
  7. Sounds cool, but all I could think of... by Geek+Tragedy · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Hello, my name is Ingo Molnar. You killed -9 my process: prepare to die."

    Sorry, had to :P

    1. Re:Sounds cool, but all I could think of... by unsinged+int · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think it's more commmonly this:

      "Hello, my name is Ingo Molnar. You kill -9 my parent process. Prepare to vi."

  8. NOOO!!!!! by Monkelectric · · Score: 3, Funny

    At school (before I graduated so long ago) we would "fork bomb" the compute servers [ while(1) do { fork(); } ] in an attempt to extend deadlines or simply be assholes :)

    --

    Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley

    1. Re:NOOO!!!!! by ez76 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I am replying pre-emptively to dissuade the AC's who would otherwise reply to you and point out that your post should not have been modded funny because this innovation would not prevent fork() bombing because it involves spawning threads and not processes.

      I am further replying pre-emptively to dissuade the AC's who would otherwise reply to me and point out my egregious abuse of run-on sentences.

      I am further replying pre-emptively to dissuade the AC's who would otherwise reply to me and point out my egregious abuse of +1 bonus.

      I am further replying pre-emptively to dissuade the AC's who would mod this post down as off-topic because they do not get the parallel allusion to fork-bombing.

    2. Re:NOOO!!!!! by AJWM · · Score: 3, Funny

      I did something like that back in my school days on a dual-CPU Burroughs B6700, but with a twist: Each process forked itself twice, then waited. When it received a signal about a child process being killed, it spawned two more. I had a sleep of a few seconds or so in there so it didn't grow too fast.

      The fun part of that was when the system operators saw the processes replicating like crazy and started to kill them, that made it worse.

      Another fun trick with that machine was to set up a circularly-linked list and invoke the LLLU (linked list lookup) instruction on it...

      (Yeah, stupid things to do. At least I only did them during relatively quiet times.)

      --
      -- Alastair
    3. Re:NOOO!!!!! by inio · · Score: 5, Funny

      Dude, you seriously need to look into writing patents.

  9. whoa! by RestiffBard · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have no idea what the hell you're talking about but it certainly sounds impressive. :)

    --
    - /* dead coders leave no comments */
  10. Great by C0D3X · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now we finally have the power to run 99,999 pop up ads when we visit that pr0n site

  11. How *I* got kicked out of the computer lab by Naikrovek · · Score: 3, Funny

    I ran this in DOS:

    prompt "Enter Password:"

    No one could figure out that all i did was change the prompt from "$P$G" to that, and everyone was asking what the password was. haha, good old teacher was infinitely frustrated as well! IT WAS BEAUTIFUL.

    I got kicked out for a year (not beautiful).

  12. big deal by leomekenkamp · · Score: 4, Funny

    100.000 threads? What nonsense; everybody knows that no computer would ever use more than 640.

    --
    Wenn ist das Nunstueck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.
  13. Re:Posix thread... by DrunkenPenguin · · Score: 2, Funny

    ..actually.

    Your answer:

    http://www.linux.ncsu.edu/lug/lectures/rpm-pres/mg p00033.html

    This is so true to all of us ;)

  14. Other similar mischief... by TheLink · · Score: 3, Funny

    Some guys I know copied a Windows error dialog box and set it as a background image for the desktop, centered.

    Imagine the poor victim vainly clicking on the buttons, and getting more and more worried. Said victim actually rebooted the machine to see it reappear, and was not happy when he started to notice the sniggering bunch behind him...

    For example pic:
    http://www.adobe.com/support/techguides/oper atings ystem/windows/winerrors.html
    Probably want to replace CCmail with Explorer or something more dear to heart ;).

    I also installed a bluescreen STOP screensaver on April Fool's day on a colleague's PC. Heh, he was shocked enough to actually called another colleague over and made the usual worried mumbles.

    http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/blues cr eensaver.shtml

    Since I had admin privs, I was also tempted to have ad.doubleclick.net and similar dns names to resolve to a private webserver which served out custom banner ads.

    Wonder how users would take it if they see the "Staff Meeting at 2pm banner ad". Or "Company Slogan here". Or "Big boss is watching you!". Or for search result sensitive ads: "Stop downloading mp3s/movies/porn!"

    I could actually justify that as a useful application. It's probably more useful than a doubleclick ad...

    But I'd probably need the 100K parallel thread kernel to serve up all those ad banners :).

    Bwahaha!
    Link.

    --