OpLog: a library for scaling update-heavy data structures

[Garrett Wollman]

I just wanted to point out the following recent publication by people
who happen to work in the same building as I do:

OpLog: a library for scaling update-heavy data structures
Author: Boyd-Wickizer, Silas; Kaashoek, M. Frans; Morris, Robert;
	Zeldovich, Nickolai
Citable URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/89653
Other Contributors: Parallel and Distributed Operating Systems
Advisor: Nickolai Zeldovich
Date Issued: 2014-09-16
Abstract:
	Existing techniques (e.g., RCU) can achieve good multi-core
	scaling for read-mostly data, but for update-heavy data
	structures only special-purpose techniques exist. This paper
	presents OpLog, a general-purpose library supporting good
	scalability for update-heavy data structures. OpLog achieves
	scalability by logging each update in a low-contention
	per-core log; it combines logs only when required by a read to
	the data structure. OpLog achieves generality by logging
	operations without having to understand them, to ease
	application to existing data structures. OpLog can further
	increase performance if the programmer indicates which
	operations can be combined in the logs. An evaluation shows
	how to apply OpLog to three update-heavy Linux kernel data
	structures. Measurements on a 48-core AMD server show that the
	result significantly improves the performance of the Apache
	web server and the Exim mail server under certain workloads.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/89653
Series/Report no.: MIT-CSAIL-TR-2014-019

-GAWollman