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Multicore Requires OS Rework, Windows Expert Says
alphadogg writes "With chip makers continuing to increase the number of cores they include on each new generation of their processors, perhaps it's time to rethink the basic architecture of today's operating systems, suggested Dave Probert, a kernel architect within the Windows core operating systems division at Microsoft. The current approach to harnessing the power of multicore processors is complicated and not entirely successful, he argued. The key may not be in throwing more energy into refining techniques such as parallel programming, but rather rethinking the basic abstractions that make up the operating systems model. Today's computers don't get enough performance out of their multicore chips, Probert said. 'Why should you ever, with all this parallel hardware, ever be waiting for your computer?' he asked. Probert made his presentation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Universal Parallel Computing Research Center."
Apparently because they don't hire stupid people like you.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
No, you don't. If you think you do, you don't understand how GCD works.
.NET and Windows DO NOT. Task Parallel Library and PLINQ still require manual intervention.
Having said that: will you get more efficient code of you properly manage threads manually in your own code? Sure. But I wasn't talking about efficiency, I was referring to the fact that this is the only mainstream OS that has such a facility.
"... it's simple a (possibly) more efficient implementation of the same old concept of task switching that's been around for decades (although I'm sure Apple will try and patent it as if it's something totally new)"
.Net - TPL, OpenMP and others)."
I think maybe you should look it up and learn a little about it. That is not the way it works. If all it was doing was task switching, it wouldn't be able to make use of parallel cores. It's still a threading model, not a task switching model. All you are doing here is guessing. You could learn more about it than that in one minute on Wikipedia.
"Similar reimplementation of threading are available or being worked on in other environments as well (Java - JSR 166,
Sure. If you manually make use of the threading tools. You still have to do that on Windows, and that was my point. You can do that TOO on a Mac. But the point was that unless you want maximum efficiency, you do not have to do that on a Mac.
Yeah, they got it. From Apple!
What you say is true but I did mean "mainstream OSes". I don't think FreeBSD quite qualifies yet.