Research Article

Analysis and measurement of the effect of kernel locks in SMP systems

  1. Akihiro Kaieda1,
  2. Yasuichi Nakayama1,*,
  3. Atsuhiro Tanaka2,
  4. Takashi Horikawa2,
  5. Toshiyasu Kurasugi2,
  6. Issei Kino2

Article first published online: 27 FEB 2001

DOI: 10.1002/cpe.551

Issue

Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience

Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience

Volume 13, Issue 2, pages 141–152, February 2001

Additional Information

How to Cite

Kaieda, A., Nakayama, Y., Tanaka, A., Horikawa, T., Kurasugi, T. and Kino, I. (2001), Analysis and measurement of the effect of kernel locks in SMP systems. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, 13: 141–152. doi: 10.1002/cpe.551

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Computer Science, The University of Electro-Communications, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan

  2. 2

    NEC Corporation, Kawasaki 216-8555, Japan

*Department of Computer Science, The University of Electro-Communications, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 27 FEB 2001
  2. Article first published online: 27 FEB 2001
  3. Manuscript Revised: 1 OCT 2000
  4. Manuscript Received: 24 MAY 2000

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Keywords:

  • SMP systems;
  • operating systems;
  • parallel programs;
  • performance evaluation;
  • kernel lock

Abstract

This article reports the use of case studies to evaluate the performance degradation caused by the kernel-level lock. We define the lock ratio as a ratio of the execution time for critical sections to the total execution time of a parallel program. The kernel-level lock ratio determines how effective programs work on symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) systems. We have measured the lock ratios and the performance of three types of parallel programs on SMP systems with Linux 2.0: matrix multiplication, parallel make, and WWW server programs. Experimental results show that the higher the lock ratio of parallel programs, the worse their performance becomes. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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