diff options
| author | Rickard Green <[email protected]> | 2010-06-17 10:23:50 +0200 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Rickard Green <[email protected]> | 2010-08-10 11:41:14 +0200 |
| commit | 300b419486c1ca88e33938f182d5d5a8b90fb73f (patch) | |
| tree | 55c37d5fb042bf6b3b5f56d89c9238a7e22f8b29 /INSTALL.md | |
| parent | c1e94fa9a6fe4ae717d35dfbd1b628dc2e06d26a (diff) | |
| download | otp-300b419486c1ca88e33938f182d5d5a8b90fb73f.tar.gz otp-300b419486c1ca88e33938f182d5d5a8b90fb73f.tar.bz2 otp-300b419486c1ca88e33938f182d5d5a8b90fb73f.zip | |
Rewrite ethread library
Large parts of the ethread library have been rewritten. The
ethread library is an Erlang runtime system internal, portable
thread library used by the runtime system itself.
Most notable improvement is a reader optimized rwlock
implementation which dramatically improve the performance of
read-lock/read-unlock operations on multi processor systems by
avoiding ping-ponging of the rwlock cache lines. The reader
optimized rwlock implementation is used by miscellaneous
rwlocks in the runtime system that are known to be read-locked
frequently, and can be enabled on ETS tables by passing the
`{read_concurrency, true}' option upon table creation. See the
documentation of `ets:new/2' for more information.
The ethread library can now also use the libatomic_ops library
for atomic memory accesses. This makes it possible for the
Erlang runtime system to utilize optimized atomic operations
on more platforms than before. Use the
`--with-libatomic_ops=PATH' configure command line argument
when specifying where the libatomic_ops installation is
located. The libatomic_ops library can be downloaded from:
http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/linux/atomic_ops/
The changed API of the ethread library has also caused
modifications in the Erlang runtime system. Preparations for
the to come "delayed deallocation" feature has also been done
since it depends on the ethread library.
Note: When building for x86, the ethread library will now use
instructions that first appeared on the pentium 4 processor. If
you want the runtime system to be compatible with older
processors (back to 486) you need to pass the
`--enable-ethread-pre-pentium4-compatibility' configure command
line argument when configuring the system.
Diffstat (limited to 'INSTALL.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | INSTALL.md | 10 |
1 files changed, 10 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/INSTALL.md b/INSTALL.md index b26c0ce018..2567b791e5 100644 --- a/INSTALL.md +++ b/INSTALL.md @@ -273,6 +273,16 @@ Some of the available `configure` options are: * `--with-ssl=PATH` - Specify location of OpenSSL include and lib * `--{with,without}-ssl` - OpenSSL (without implies that the `crypto`, `ssh`, and `ssl` won't be built) +* `--enable-ethread-pre-pentium4-compatibility` - Enable compatibility with + x86 processors before pentium 4 (back to 486) in the ethread library. If + not passed the ethread library (part of the runtime system) will use + instructions that first appeared on the pentium 4 processor when building + for x86. +* `--with-libatomic_ops=PATH` - Use the `libatomic_ops` library for atomic + memory accesses. If `configure` should inform you about no native atomic + implementation available, you typically want to try using the + `libatomic_ops` library. It can be downloaded from + <http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/linux/atomic_ops/>. If you or your system has special requirements please read the `Makefile` for additional configuration information. |