POSTER: Reuse, don't Recycle: Transforming Algorithms that Throw Away Descriptors

Abstract

Lock-free algorithms guarantee progress by having threads help one another. Complex lock-free operations facilitate helping by creating descriptor objects that describe how other threads should help them. In many lock-free algorithms, a new descriptor is allocated for each operation. After an operation completes, its descriptor must be reclaimed by a memory reclamation scheme. Allocating and reclaiming descriptors introduces significant space and time overhead.