1.false sharing原因:
CPU loads memory into cache by "line"
Linux下获取cache line :
cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep cache_alignment
or cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuN/cache/indexN/coherency_line_size 以及其他详尽的cpu cache信息
Maybe : get cacheline programatically ( via C language )
Multi-cpu contention algorithm "hardware write lock"
Maybe : cache algorithms "MESI"
2.程序示例
根据开启的线程数量,观察完成时间的scaling情况,同时观察CPU load
实践:验证the time waiting for memory is counted into CPU time?
3.数据在同一cache line的原因
Array is continuous
The linker lay out global or static data closely in the memory ( in the data segment? )
structs and C++ object layout is compact
Two individual objects on the heap happens to be nearby.(Especially for same kind of objects allocated using its own memory-pool or slab-allocator)
4.解决办法
1)reduce access of the false-sharing structure <= use thread stack or local storage
2)using alignment + pading to eliminate false-sharing
Reminder : the CACHE_LINE_SIZE must be defined at compiling time
c++0x syntax : [[ align(CACHE_LINZE_SIZE) ]] T data;
(可惜GCC现在仍然不支持alignment,)
GCC's externsion : __attribute__(( aligned(CACHE_LINE_SIZE) )) T data;
实践:A general wrapper to ensure 'correct individual ' : CacheLineStorage<T> (Maybe only useful for data object)
5. 最佳实践+总结
1)尽量减少线程间共享结构的频繁读写(尽管无需锁,依然会造成cache-line miss)
2)如果共享结构必须,则注意使在不同线程中频繁读取的数据位于不同的cache line上
6. 数据 + Profiling方法
Intel Pentium M:
Register <= 1; L1d ~ 3; L2 ~ 14; Main-Memory ~ 240; (cycles)
按2GHz CPU计算,cache-miss-time最大约为100ns (0.1us)?
TODO : 使用profiling工具来检查CPI和cache miss rate
参考文献:
Eliminate false sharing by Herb Sutter (nice blog and author!)