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USENIX 2nd Symposium on OS Design and Implementation (OSDI '96)

Pp. 123–136 of the Proceedings

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The Synergy Between Non-blocking Synchronization and Operating System Structure

Michael Greenwald and David Cheriton gif
Computer Science Department
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-9040

Abstract:

Non-blocking synchronization has significant advantages over blocking synchronization: however, it has not been used to a significant degree in practice. We designed and implemented a multiprocessor operating system kernel and run-time library for high-performance, reliability and modularity. We used non-blocking synchronization, not because it was an objective in itself, but because it became the approach of choice. It was an attractive approach because of the synergy between other structuring techniques we used to achieve our primary goals and the benefits of non-blocking synchronization.

This paper describes this synergy: the structuring techniques we used which facilitated non-blocking synchronization and our experience with this implementation.





Michael Greenwald
Wed Sep 18 15:42:13 PDT 1996

This paper was originally published in the proceedings of The Second Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI '96), October 28–31, 1996, Seattle, Washington, USA
Last changed: 10 Jan 2003 aw
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