Parallel calculator objects


Calculator

Normally all objects in Vimms have an associated mutex, which prevents each object to be executed at the same time by multiple threads. For example, when running Vimms on a multiprocessor machine it is often useful to execute the same code on multiple processors. Without parallel objects it would be necessary to make multiple copies of the same calculator object, corresponding to the number of desired threads. As this makes a program unnecessary complex and uneasy to handle, the code in the calculator object may unlock the object so that it is possible for another thread to execute the same calculator object in parallel.

When doing that, some precautions must be taken:

For locking and unlocking each calculator object has a variable object_control of type Object_Control. This class contains the following function definition (see vflcalc.h):

void* Object_Control::unlock(); void Object_Control::lock(void* lockd); The first function unlocks the object and returns a void pointer which must be stored in a local variable. This function unlocks the associated mutex and another thread may execute the same code. For locking the object again the void pointer the unlock function returned must be passed as parameter to lock(). After locking, input and output variables may be accessed again.

The following example demonstrates the usage:

#include <sys/times.h> extern "C" bool run() { tms st,et; int iter = inputiter; //integer input variable void* lockd = object_control.unlock(); //unlock the object times(&st); volatile int k = 0; for (int i=0;i<10000;i++) for (int j=0;j<iter;j++) k++; times(&et); object_control.lock(lockd); //lock the object again int delta = et.tms_utime - st.tms_utime; outtime = delta; //integer output variable return true; //continues execution } The example stores the value of the input variable inputiter into the local variable iter and than unlocks the object. Then it does some iterations and measures the time needed for the loops. After that the object is locked again and the elapsed time is stored into the output variable outtime.
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