Abstract
The snapshot problem for shared memory systems is to enable a set of processes called scanners to obtain a consistent picture of the shared memory while other processes called updaters keep updating memory locations concurrently. One of the most intriguing open problems in wait-free distributed computing is the existence of a linear-time solution to this problem. In this paper we show that:
-
Consider a system of n processes that can perform update and scan operations. There exists a solution in which one of the operations (either update or scan) has linear time complexity, while the time complexity of the second operation is O(n log n).
-
If the number of either scanners or updaters is O(n /log n), where n is the total number of processes, then such a linear solution exists.
-
If one of the protocols (either scan or update) is executed significantly more often than the other protocol, then a solution with amortized linear time complexity exists.
Partially supported by NWO through NFI Project ALADDIN under Contract number NF 62-376.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
J. Anderson, Composite Registers, Proceedings of the 9th Annual ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing, 1990, pp. 15–29.
Y. Afek, H. Attiya, D. Dolev, E. Gafni, M. Merritt, and N. Shavit, Atomic Snapshots of Shared Memory, Proceedings of the 9th Annual ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing, 1990, pp. 1–13.
J. Aspnes and M. Herlihy, Wait-free Data Structures in the Asynchronous PRAM Model, Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Symposium on Parallel Algorithms and Architectures, 1990, pp. 340–349.
H. Attiya, M. Herlihy and O. Rachman, Efficient Atomic Snapshots Using Lattice Agreement, Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Distributed Algorithms and Graphs, Haifa, Israel, November 1992, (A. Segall and S. Zaks, eds.) pp. 35–53, Lecture Notes in Computer Science #647, Springer-Verlag, 1992.
H. Attiya and O. Rachman, Atomic Snapshots in O(n log n) Operations, to appear in Proceedings of the 12th Annual ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing, 1993.
G. Bracha and O. Rachman, Randomized Consensus in Expected O(n2 log n) Operations, proceedings of the Fifth Workshop on Distributed Algorithms, 1991.
T.D. Chandra and C. Dwork, personal communications.
C. Dwork, M. Herlihy, S. Plotkin and O. Waarts, Time-Lapse Snapshots, Proceedings of the 1st Israeli Symposium on Theory of Computing and Systems, Haifa Israel May 1992, (D. Dolev Z. Galil and M. Rodeh, eds.) pp. 154–170, Lecture Notes in Computer Science #601, Springer-Verlag, 1992.
J.H. Hoepman and J. Tromp, Binary Snapshots, these proceedings.
M.P. Herlihy and J.M. Wing, Linearizability: A Correctness Condition for Concurrent Objects, ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, Vol. 12, No. 3, July 1990, pp. 463–492.
A. Israeli and A. Shirazi, Efficient Snapshot Protocol Using 2-Lattice Agreement, preprint.
A. Israeli and A. Shirazi, The Complexity of Updating Snapshot Objects, preprint.
L.M. Kirousis, P. Spirakis and P. Tsigas, Reading Many variables in One Atomic Operation: Solutions with Linear or Sublinear Complexity, Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Distributed Algorithms and Graphs, Delphi, Greece, October 1991, (S. Toueg, P. Spirakis and L. Kirousis, eds.) pp. 229–241, Lecture Notes in Computer Science #579, Springer-Verlag, 1992.
L.M. Kirousis, P. Spirakis and P. Tsigas, Simple Atomic Snapshots, A Linear Complexity Solution With Unbounded Time-Stamps, Proceedings of Advances in Computing and Information — ICCI, 1991, pp. 582–587, Lecture Notes in Computer Science #497, Springer-Verlag, 1991.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Israeli, A., Shaham, A., Shirazi, A. (1993). Linear-time snapshot protocols for unbalanced systems. In: Schiper, A. (eds) Distributed Algorithms. WDAG 1993. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 725. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57271-6_25
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57271-6_25
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-57271-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48029-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive