[Python-ideas] solving multi-core Python

Ethan Furman ethan at stoneleaf.us
Fri Jun 26 00:11:40 CEST 2015


On 06/25/2015 08:25 AM, Sturla Molden wrote:
> On 25/06/15 16:31, Nick Coghlan wrote:
>
>> 3. The potential for collisions between objects means it isn't an
>> embarrassingly parallel problem where the different computational
>> threads can entirely ignore the existence of the other threads
>
> Well, you can have a loop that updates all particles, e.g. by calling a coroutine associated with each particle, and then this loop is an embarrassingly parallel problem. You don't need to associate
> each particle with its own thread.
>
> It is bad to teach students to use one thread per particle anyway. Suddenly they write a system that have thousands of threads.

Speaking as a novice to this area, I do understand that what we learn with may not be (and usually isn't) production-ready code, I do see Nick's suggestion as being one that is easy to understand, 
easy to measure, and good for piquing interest.

At least, I'm now interested.  :)  (look ma!  bowling for circles!)

--
~Ethan~


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