Transactional pointers: Experiences with HTM-based reference counting in C++

Maria Carpen-Amarie; Dave Dice; Gaël Thomas; Pascal Felber

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-46140-3_8

Transactional pointers: Experiences with HTM-based reference counting in C++

Maria Carpen-Amarie, Dave Dice, Gaël Thomas, Pascal Felber

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

Abstract

The most popular programming languages, such as C++ or Java, have libraries and data structures designed to automatically address concurrency hazards in order to run on multiple threads. In particular, this trend has also been adopted in the memory management domain. However, automatic concurrent memory management also comes at a price, leading sometimes to noticeable overhead. In this paper, we experiment with C++ smart pointers and their automatic memorymanagement technique based on reference counting. More precisely, we study how we can use hardware transactional memory (HTM) to avoid costly and sometimes unnecessary atomic operations. Our results suggest that replacing the systematic counting strategy with HTM could improve application performance in certain scenarios, such as concurrent linked-list traversal.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Networked Systems - 4th International Conference, NETYS 2016, Revised Selected Papers
Editors	Carole Delporte -Gallet, Parosh Aziz Abdulla
Publisher	Springer Verlag
Pages	102-116
Number of pages	15
ISBN (Print)	9783319461397
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46140-3_8
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2016
Event	4th International Conference on Networked Systems, NETYS 2016 - Marrakech, Morocco Duration: 18 May 2016 → 20 May 2016

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume	9944 LNCS
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Conference

Conference	4th International Conference on Networked Systems, NETYS 2016
Country/Territory	Morocco
City	Marrakech
Period	18/05/16 → 20/05/16

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-319-46140-3_8

Cite this

Carpen-Amarie, M., Dice, D., Thomas, G., & Felber, P. (2016). Transactional pointers: Experiences with HTM-based reference counting in C++. In C. D. -Gallet, & P. A. Abdulla (Eds.), Networked Systems - 4th International Conference, NETYS 2016, Revised Selected Papers (pp. 102-116). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 9944 LNCS). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46140-3_8

Carpen-Amarie, Maria ; Dice, Dave ; Thomas, Gaël et al. / Transactional pointers : Experiences with HTM-based reference counting in C++. Networked Systems - 4th International Conference, NETYS 2016, Revised Selected Papers. editor / Carole Delporte -Gallet ; Parosh Aziz Abdulla. Springer Verlag, 2016. pp. 102-116 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)).

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title = "Transactional pointers: Experiences with HTM-based reference counting in C++",

abstract = "The most popular programming languages, such as C++ or Java, have libraries and data structures designed to automatically address concurrency hazards in order to run on multiple threads. In particular, this trend has also been adopted in the memory management domain. However, automatic concurrent memory management also comes at a price, leading sometimes to noticeable overhead. In this paper, we experiment with C++ smart pointers and their automatic memorymanagement technique based on reference counting. More precisely, we study how we can use hardware transactional memory (HTM) to avoid costly and sometimes unnecessary atomic operations. Our results suggest that replacing the systematic counting strategy with HTM could improve application performance in certain scenarios, such as concurrent linked-list traversal.",

author = "Maria Carpen-Amarie and Dave Dice and Ga{\"e}l Thomas and Pascal Felber",

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Carpen-Amarie, M, Dice, D, Thomas, G & Felber, P 2016, Transactional pointers: Experiences with HTM-based reference counting in C++. in CD -Gallet & PA Abdulla (eds), Networked Systems - 4th International Conference, NETYS 2016, Revised Selected Papers. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 9944 LNCS, Springer Verlag, pp. 102-116, 4th International Conference on Networked Systems, NETYS 2016, Marrakech, Morocco, 18/05/16. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46140-3_8

Transactional pointers: Experiences with HTM-based reference counting in C++. / Carpen-Amarie, Maria; Dice, Dave; Thomas, Gaël et al.
Networked Systems - 4th International Conference, NETYS 2016, Revised Selected Papers. ed. / Carole Delporte -Gallet; Parosh Aziz Abdulla. Springer Verlag, 2016. p. 102-116 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 9944 LNCS).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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N2 - The most popular programming languages, such as C++ or Java, have libraries and data structures designed to automatically address concurrency hazards in order to run on multiple threads. In particular, this trend has also been adopted in the memory management domain. However, automatic concurrent memory management also comes at a price, leading sometimes to noticeable overhead. In this paper, we experiment with C++ smart pointers and their automatic memorymanagement technique based on reference counting. More precisely, we study how we can use hardware transactional memory (HTM) to avoid costly and sometimes unnecessary atomic operations. Our results suggest that replacing the systematic counting strategy with HTM could improve application performance in certain scenarios, such as concurrent linked-list traversal.

AB - The most popular programming languages, such as C++ or Java, have libraries and data structures designed to automatically address concurrency hazards in order to run on multiple threads. In particular, this trend has also been adopted in the memory management domain. However, automatic concurrent memory management also comes at a price, leading sometimes to noticeable overhead. In this paper, we experiment with C++ smart pointers and their automatic memorymanagement technique based on reference counting. More precisely, we study how we can use hardware transactional memory (HTM) to avoid costly and sometimes unnecessary atomic operations. Our results suggest that replacing the systematic counting strategy with HTM could improve application performance in certain scenarios, such as concurrent linked-list traversal.

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Carpen-Amarie M, Dice D, Thomas G, Felber P. Transactional pointers: Experiences with HTM-based reference counting in C++. In -Gallet CD, Abdulla PA, editors, Networked Systems - 4th International Conference, NETYS 2016, Revised Selected Papers. Springer Verlag. 2016. p. 102-116. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)). doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-46140-3_8

Transactional pointers: Experiences with HTM-based reference counting in C++

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