Re: [Caml-list] OC4MC : OCaml for Multicore architectures

[Jon Harrop <jon@ffconsultancy.com>]

On Friday 25 September 2009 08:32:26 Hugo Ferreira wrote:
> Put it another way; if parallel/concurrent programming could be
> easily used with a minimum of effort then I believe "most people"
> would use it simply because it is available.

Once your run-time supports it, you just need a library that farms tasks out 
to threads via queues and a lot of parallelism really is easy.

>  >...
>  > If I tell you that you just have to modify a bit your program to get a
>  > near linear speedup, then it looks great. But in practice it is rather
>  > having to rethink completely your algorithm, to eventually get a
>  > speedup bounded by bandwidth, and starting from a point lower than the
>  > original single thread program.
>  >...
>
> Rethinking our application/algorithmic structure may not be a real
> deterrent. An application does not require parallel/concurrent
> processing everywhere. It is really a question of identifying where
> and when this is useful. Much like selecting the most "appropriate"
> data-structure for any application. It's not an all or nothing
> proposition.

Right. Parallelizing programs generally consists of identifying a performance 
bottleneck via measurement and performing the outermost parallelizable loops 
in parallel. You can do many more clever things but they are far less common.

-- 
Dr Jon Harrop, Flying Frog Consultancy Ltd.
http://www.ffconsultancy.com/?e