AtomCaml: first-class atomicity via rollback

We have designed, implemented, and evaluated AtomCaml, an extension to Objective Caml that provides a synchronization primitive for atomic (transactional) execution of code. A first-class primitive function of type (unit->'a)->'a evaluates its argument (which may call other functions, even external C functions) as though no other thread has interleaved execution. Our design ensures fair scheduling and obstruction-freedom. Our implementation extends the Objective Caml bytecode compiler and run-time system to support atomicity. A logging-and-rollback approach lets us undo uncompleted atomic blocks upon thread pre-emption, and retry them when the thread is rescheduled. The mostly functional nature of the Caml language and the Objective Caml implementation's commitment to a uniprocessor execution model (i.e., threads are interleaved, not executed simultaneously) allow particularly efficient logging. We have evaluated the efficiency and ease-of-use of AtomCaml by writi...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: ICFP
• Authors: Michael F. Ringenburg, Dan Grossman
• Keywords: Caml Bytecode Compiler, Caml Language, ICFP 2005, Objective Caml, Programming Languages