Work dealing

Danny Hendler, Nir Shavit

Abstract: This paper introduces work-dealing, a new algorithm for "locality oriented" load distribution on small scale shared memory multi-processors. Its key feature is an unprecedented low overhead mechanism (only a couple of loads and stores per operation, and no costly compare-and-swaps) for dealing-out work to processors in a globally balanced way. We believe that for applications in which work-items have process affinity, especially applications running in dedicated mode ("stand alone"), work-dealing could prove a worthy alternative to the popular work-stealing paradigm.