OPTIK
OPTIK is a new practical design pattern for designing and implementing fast and scalable concurrent data structures. OPTIK relies on the commonly-used technique of version numbers for detecting conflicting concurrent operations. We implement the OPTIK pattern using the novel concept of OPTIK locks. These locks enable the use of version numbers for implementing very efficient optimistic concurrent data structures. Existing state-of-the-art lock-based data structures acquire the lock and then check for conflicts. In contrast, with OPTIK locks, we merge the lock acquisition with the detection of conflicting concurrency in a single atomic step, similarly to lock-free algorithms. We illustrate the power of our OPTIK pattern and its implementation by introducing four new algorithms and by optimizing four state-of-the-art algorithms for linked lists, skip lists, hash tables, and queues.
Publications
OPTIK was introduced in:
Optimistic Concurrency with OPTIK
Rachid Guerraoui, Vasileios Trigonakis (alphabetical order).
PPoPP 2016