prc@erbe.se (Robert Claeson) (07/14/89)
Is there anyone who have tried (and succeeded) to parallelize the
'compress' utility? Is the algorithm even suitable for parallelization?
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Robert Claeson E-mail: rclaeson@erbe.se
ERBE DATA ABloverso@Xylogics.COM (John Robert LoVerso) (07/14/89)
In article <761@maxim.erbe.se> rclaeson@erbe.se (Robert Claeson) writes: > Is there anyone who have tried (and succeeded) to parallelize the > 'compress' utility? Is the algorithm even suitable for parallelization? I assume you mean parallelizing compress such that the compression of a single file is spread over multiple execution units. I haven't seen much in the way of any tools developed like this, probably because of some of the obscurity of the threads libraries available with UMAX. Right after the Internet worm fiasco, Barry Shein had a password cracker using threads on a MACH Multimax, but I digress. The other case of `parallelization' that Encore provides on the multimax is where "compress *" would have multiple files being compressed at the same time. This should be easily done with setenv PARALLEL `numcpus` apply compress ${files} Of course, Encore's parallel apply has numerous bugs and pitfalls, making it mostly useless for anything more complicated than the above. Even then, it seems exceptionally slow. I've got some of the work done on parallelizing the GNU xargs, but never had time to finish it. Does anyone have a working, parallelized, _distributable_, xargs or apply? John -- John Robert LoVerso Xylogics, Inc. 617/272-8140 loverso@Xylogics.COM Annex Terminal Server Development Group encore!xylogics!loverso [formerly of Encore Computer Corp]