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Benchmark nodeJS worker threads for calculating prime numbers, using various dataStructures

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nilshah98/worker-threads-NodeJS

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Idea

Primes

  • Calculating primes is one of the most computationally intensive task, and an important component in computer security.
  • This repo aims at calculating prime numbers, in a certain range, using multithreading concepts in NodeJS.
  • Basic sieve method is used to collect prime numbers. The range is divided between worker-threads here.
  • And the number of worker threads spawned is equal to the number of cores, to maximise output. If more spawned need to switch between threads, which takes time, if more spawned, cores underutilized.

Worker Threads

  • Javascript can handle I/O events easily, owing to EventLoop. Hence, Node can handle multiple HTTP requests pretty seamlessly.
  • But, if Node needs to do heavy computation, it cannot rely on EventLoop, since it runs on single-thread, and all the cores aren't optimally utilized. Here is when, worker-thread comes in.
  • From the Worker-Thread Docs-
    Workers (threads) are useful for performing CPU-intensive JavaScript operations. They will not help much with I/O-intensive work. Node.js’s built-in asynchronous I/O operations are more efficient than Workers can be.
  • For tasks like these, even child_processes or cluster can be used. Although, they don't provide support for transferring or sharing memory as of now.

Links

Data Structure

  • For initialising a worker, passing data in workerData actually clones the data
  • Whereas, for passing messages, using worker.postMessage(), data is passed either by cloning, transfering or sharing
  • Cloning : Arrays are serialised then cloned, and desearialised. Since, the raw data segregation isn't know.
  • Transfering : ArrayBuffer operate on this, since, they use TypedArrays such as Uint8Array as layer, owing to which, their raw segment sizes are known, and can be transfered easily.
  • Sharing : SharedArrayBuffer is similar to ArrayBuffer, where you need to wrap it using TypedArrays, but they can be shared. To maintain concurrency, Atomics library is used alongwith it, to perform concurrent opertations

Links

Other Tools used

  • Inquirer.JS - To create command line interfaces, in a whim.
  • Ora - Elegant terminal spinners for your command line interfaces.
  • Benchmark.JS - A robust benchmarking library, with high-resolution timers.

Interface

Interactive CLI

Benchmarking and write to CSV

ToDo

  • Add serialised Array and benchmark
  • Plot the benchmark data
  • Benchmark message passing
  • Implement communication between workers

Benchmarks

  • To calculate prime numbers upto a Range.

CPU

CPU family: 6
Model name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8600K CPU @ 3.60GHz

OS

Ubuntu 18.04

Graph

Data

Range Thread DataStructure MeanExecTime(in secs) NumberOfCycles
100 worker sharedArrayBuffer 0.05451655452083334 48
100 worker arrayBuffer 0.05048775225490198 51
100 worker array 0.05209960375510204 49
100 main normalSieve 0.0000026189117609852627 88
1000 worker sharedArrayBuffer 0.05594300798936169 47
1000 worker arrayBuffer 0.06054065555844155 77
1000 worker array 0.06030849465384614 78
1000 main normalSieve 0.000025705733772647114 88
10000 worker sharedArrayBuffer 0.07244938477611937 67
10000 worker arrayBuffer 0.05967241462068965 58
10000 worker array 0.06134170045454545 77
10000 main normalSieve 0.00028022878913731803 83
100000 worker sharedArrayBuffer 0.06629550497260277 73
100000 worker arrayBuffer 0.06146969272727272 77
100000 worker array 0.07276433691044777 67
100000 main normalSieve 0.003791498413793104 87
1000000 worker sharedArrayBuffer 0.08153615076666666 60
1000000 worker arrayBuffer 0.08271871261666669 60
1000000 worker array 0.15392867627777776 36
1000000 main normalSieve 0.04862653041509433 53
10000000 worker sharedArrayBuffer 0.1780489309032258 31
10000000 worker arrayBuffer 0.23233239540000003 25
10000000 worker array 1.465544911125 8
10000000 main normalSieve 1.631624435625 8
20000000 worker sharedArrayBuffer 0.36814615133333334 18
20000000 worker arrayBuffer 0.8236841264000001 10
20000000 worker array 3.2359141328333334 6
20000000 main normalSieve 3.213333790833333 6
  • Over large inputs, worker thread works better than main threads.
  • Also, sharedArrayBuffer gives best performance over various data structures.
  • When using sharedArrayBuffer beware, to use Atomics library to maintain data consistency.

Addendum

  • Notes and errors encounterd, have been added to NOTES.md

Contributing

  • Always open for enchancements and bux-fixes!

Contributors

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