Sandia National Laboratories
Download
POSIX Implementation
   (Install)

The Qthread Library

The qthreads API is designed to make using large numbers of threads convenient and easy, and to allow portable access to threading constructs used in massively parallel shared memory environments. The API maps well to both MTA-style threading and PIM-style threading, and is still quite useful in a standard SMP context. The qthreads API provides access to full/empty-bit (FEB) semantics, where every word of memory can be marked either full or empty, and a thread can wait for any word to attain either state.

The qthreads library on an SMP (i.e. the POSIX implementation) is essentially a library for spawning and controlling coroutines: threads with small (4k) stacks. The threads are entirely in user-space and use their blocked/unblocked status as part of their scheduling. The library's metaphor is that there are many qthreads and several "shepherds". Shepherds can be thought of as a thread mobility domain; they map to specific processors or memory regions. Qthreads are assigned to specific shepherds and do not migrate unless directed to migrate.

The API includes utility functions for making threaded loops, sorting, and similar operations convenient.

The Qthread library was developed to explore innovations in highly concurrent systems where the ultimate system either does not exist, or is sufficiently hard to obtain that development of software for the system becomes difficult.

Platforms & Requirements

To compile and run the POSIX Qthreads you will require:

  • A UNIX-like shell (Qthreads uses the GNU Autotools)
  • GNU Make
  • C/C++ Compiler

To compile and run SST Qthreads you will require:

  • GNU Make
  • PPC C/C++ Compiler
  • A full complement of static libraries (here)

Installation

Detailed installation directions are included in the INSTALL file in the distribution (see the link on the left).

Papers & Publications

To cite qthreads, please use:

  • Qthreads: An API for Programming with Millions of Lightweight Threads
    Kyle Wheeler, Richard Murphy, Douglas Thain
    In the Proceedings of the 22nd IEEE International Parallel & Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS '08, in the MTAAP '08 workshop), IEEE Press, 2008.

Additional related publications:

  • Implementing a Portable Multi-threaded Graph Library: the MTGL on Qthreads
    Brian Barrett, Jonathan Berry, Richard Murphy, Kyle Wheeler
    In the Proceedings of the 23rd IEEE International Parallel & Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS '09, in the MTAAP '09 workshop), IEEE Press, 2009.
  • Portable Performance from Workstation to Supercomputer: Distributing Data Structures with Qthreads
    Kyle Wheeler, Douglas Thain, Richard Murphy
    In the Proceedings of the First Workshop on Programming Models for Emerging Architectures (PMEA), IEEE Press, 2009.

API 1.2 Documentation

Top of page

Contacts