research-article

DRFX: a simple and efficient memory model for concurrent programming languages

Authors:

Abhayendra Singh,

Todd Millstein,

Madanlal Musuvathi,

Satish NarayanasamyAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 45, Issue 6

Pages 351 - 362

https://doi.org/10.1145/1809028.1806636

Published: 05 June 2010 Publication History

Abstract

The most intuitive memory model for shared-memory multithreaded programming is sequential consistency(SC), but it disallows the use of many compiler and hardware optimizations thereby impacting performance. Data-race-free (DRF) models, such as the proposed C++0x memory model, guarantee SC execution for datarace-free programs. But these models provide no guarantee at all for racy programs, compromising the safety and debuggability of such programs. To address the safety issue, the Java memory model, which is also based on the DRF model, provides a weak semantics for racy executions. However, this semantics is subtle and complex, making it difficult for programmers to reason about their programs and for compiler writers to ensure the correctness of compiler optimizations.

We present the DRFx memory model, which is simple for programmers to understand and use while still supporting many common optimizations. We introduce a memory model (MM) exception which can be signaled to halt execution. If a program executes without throwing this exception, then DRFx guarantees that the execution is SC. If a program throws an MM exception during an execution, then DRFx guarantees that the program has a data race. We observe that SC violations can be detected in hardware through a lightweight form of conflict detection. Furthermore, our model safely allows aggressive compiler and hardware optimizations within compiler-designated program regions. We formalize our memory model, prove several properties about this model, describe a compiler and hardware design suitable for DRFx, and evaluate the performance overhead due to our compiler and hardware requirements.

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Cited By

Moiseenko EPodkopaev AKoznov D(2021)A Survey of Programming Language Memory ModelsProgramming and Computer Software10.1134/S036176882106005047:6(439-456)Online publication date: 3-Dec-2021
https://doi.org/10.1134/S0361768821060050
Gen� KRoemer JXu YBond M(2019)Dependence-aware, unbounded sound predictive race detectionProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/33606053:OOPSLA(1-30)Online publication date: 10-Oct-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3360605
Jiang HLiang HXiao SZha JFeng XMcKinley KFisher K(2019)Towards certified separate compilation for concurrent programsProceedings of the 40th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation10.1145/3314221.3314595(111-125)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2019
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Index Terms

DRFX: a simple and efficient memory model for concurrent programming languages
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language types
        Concurrent programming languages
        Distributed programming languages
        Parallel programming languages

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Published In

cover image ACM SIGPLAN Notices

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 45, Issue 6

PLDI '10

June 2010

496 pages

ISSN:0362-1340

EISSN:1558-1160

DOI:10.1145/1809028

Issue’s Table of Contents

PLDI '10: Proceedings of the 31st ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation
June 2010
514 pages
ISBN:9781450300193
DOI:10.1145/1806596
General Chair:
Ben Zorn
Microsoft Research
,
Program Chair:
Alex Aiken
Stanford University

Copyright � 2010 ACM.

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Association for Computing Machinery

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Published: 05 June 2010

Published in�SIGPLAN�Volume 45, Issue 6

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https://doi.org/10.1134/S0361768821060050
Genç KRoemer JXu YBond M(2019)Dependence-aware, unbounded sound predictive race detectionProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/33606053:OOPSLA(1-30)Online publication date: 10-Oct-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3360605
Jiang HLiang HXiao SZha JFeng XMcKinley KFisher K(2019)Towards certified separate compilation for concurrent programsProceedings of the 40th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation10.1145/3314221.3314595(111-125)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3314221.3314595
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Sengupta ABiswas SZhang MBond MKulkarni MOzturk OEbcioglu KDwarkadas S(2015)Hybrid Static–Dynamic Analysis for Statically Bounded Region SerializabilityProceedings of the Twentieth International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems10.1145/2694344.2694379(561-575)Online publication date: 14-Mar-2015
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Cogumbreiro TLange JLiew DZicarelli H(2023)Memory access protocols: certified data-race freedom for GPU kernelsFormal Methods in System Design10.1007/s10703-023-00415-0Online publication date: 26-May-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10703-023-00415-0
Liu LMillstein TMusuvathi M(2021)Safe-by-default Concurrency for Modern Programming LanguagesACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/346220643:3(1-50)Online publication date: 3-Sep-2021
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Zhang RBiswas SBalaji VBond MLucia BLarus JCeze LStrauss K(2020)PeacenikProceedings of the Twenty-Fifth International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems10.1145/3373376.3378485(317-333)Online publication date: 9-Mar-2020
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Liu LMillstein TMusuvathi MMcKinley KFisher K(2019)Accelerating sequential consistency for Java with speculative compilationProceedings of the 40th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation10.1145/3314221.3314611(16-30)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3314221.3314611
Jiang HLiang HXiao SZha JFeng XMcKinley KFisher K(2019)Towards certified separate compilation for concurrent programsProceedings of the 40th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation10.1145/3314221.3314595(111-125)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2019
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