Bringing practical lock-free synchronization to 64-bit applications

Many lock-free data structures in the literature exploit techniques that are possible only because state-of-the-art 64-bit processors are still running 32-bit operating systems and applications. As software catches up to hardware, “64-bitclean” lock-free data structures, which cannot use such techniques, are needed. We present several 64-bit-clean lock-free implementations: load-linked/store-conditional variables of arbitrary size, a FIFO queue, and a freelist. In addition to being portable to 64-bit software, our implementations also improve on previous ones in that they are space-adaptive and do not require knowledge of the number of threads that will access them. Categories and Subject Descriptors

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: PODC
• Authors: Simon Doherty, Maurice Herlihy, Victor Luchangco, Mark Moir
• Keywords: 64-bit-clean Lock-free Implementations, Distributed And Parallel Computing, Lock-free Data Structures, Many Lock-free Data, PODC 2004