Half-Sync/Half-Async - An Architectural Pattern for Efficient and Well-structured Concurrent I/O (1995)
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| Venue: | in Proceedings of the 2 nd Annual Conference on the Pattern Languages of Programs |
| Citations: | 27 - 11 self |
BibTeX
@INPROCEEDINGS{Schmidt95half-sync/half-async-,
author = {Douglas C. Schmidt and Charles D. Cranor},
title = {Half-Sync/Half-Async - An Architectural Pattern for Efficient and Well-structured Concurrent I/O},
booktitle = {in Proceedings of the 2 nd Annual Conference on the Pattern Languages of Programs},
year = {1995},
pages = {1--10},
publisher = {Addison-Wesley}
}
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Abstract
This paper describes the Half-Sync/Half-Async pattern, which integrates synchronous and asynchronous I/O models to support both programming simplicity and execution efficiency in complex concurrent software systems. In this pattern, higher-level tasks use a synchronous I/O model, which simplifies concurrent programming. In contrast, lower-level tasks use an asynchronous I/O model, which enhances execution efficiency. This pattern is widely used in operating systems such as UNIX, Mach, WindowsNT, and VMS, as well as other complex concurrent systems. 1 Intent The Half-Sync/Half-Async pattern decouples synchronous I/O from asynchronous I/O in a system to simplify concurrent programming effort without degrading execution efficiency. 2 Motivation To illustrate the Half-Sync/Half-Async pattern, consider the software architecture of the BSD UNIX [1] networking subsystem shown in Figure 1. The BSD UNIX kernel coordinates I/O between asynchronous communication devices (such as network adapter...
