Cilk: An Efficient Multithreaded Runtime System
Cilk (pronounced “silk”) is a C-based runtime system for multithreaded parallel programming. In this paper, we document the efficiency of the Cilk work-stealing scheduler, both empirically and analytically. We show that on real and synthetic applications, the “work” and “critical-path length” of a C...
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| Published in: | Journal of parallel and distributed computing Vol. 37; no. 1; pp. 55 - 69 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier Inc
25.08.1996
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| ISSN: | 0743-7315, 1096-0848 |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Cilk (pronounced “silk”) is a C-based runtime system for multithreaded parallel programming. In this paper, we document the efficiency of the Cilk work-stealing scheduler, both empirically and analytically. We show that on real and synthetic applications, the “work” and “critical-path length” of a Cilk computation can be used to model performance accurately. Consequently, a Cilk programmer can focus on reducing the computation's work and critical-path length, insulated from load balancing and other runtime scheduling issues. We also prove that for the class of “fully strict” (well-structured) programs, the Cilk scheduler achieves space, time, and communication bounds all within a constant factor of optimal. The Cilk runtime system currently runs on the Connection Machine CM5 MPP, the Intel Paragon MPP, the Sun Sparcstation SMP, and the Cilk-NOW network of workstations. Applications written in Cilk include protein folding, graphic rendering, backtrack search, and the ★Socrates chess program, which won second prize in the 1995 ICCA World Computer Chess Championship. |
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| ISSN: | 0743-7315 1096-0848 |
| DOI: | 10.1006/jpdc.1996.0107 |