Question

I’m new to multithreading and try to learn it through a simple program, which adds 1 to n and return the sum. In the sequential case, the main call the sumFrom1 function twice for n = 1e5 and 2e5; in the multithreaded cases, two threads are created using pthread_create and two sums are calculated in separate thread. The multithreadting version is much slower than the sequential version (see results below). I run this on a 12-CPU platform and there are no communication between threads.

Multithreaded:

Thread 1 returns: 0 
Thread 2 returns: 0 
sum of 1..10000: 50005000
sum of 1..20000: 200010000
time: 156 seconds

Sequential:

sum of 1..10000: 50005000
sum of 1..20000: 200010000
time: 56 seconds

When I add -O2 in compilation, the time of multithreaded version (9s) is less than that of sequential version (11s), but not much as I expect. I can always have the -O2 flag on but I’m curious about the low speed of multithreading in the unoptimized case. Should it be slower than sequential version? If not, what can I do to make it faster?

The code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <pthread.h>
#include <time.h>

typedef struct my_struct
{
  int n;                                                                                                                                                              
  int sum;                                                                                                                                                            
}my_struct_t;                                                                                                                                                         

void *sumFrom1(void* sit)                                                                                                                                              
{                                                                                                                                                                     
  my_struct_t* local_sit = (my_struct_t*) sit;                                                                                                                          
  int i;                                                                                                                                                              
  int nsim = 500000;  // Loops for consuming time                                                                                                                                                
  int j;                                                                                                                                                              

  for(j = 0; j < nsim; j++)                                                                                                                                           
  {                                                                                                                                                                   
    local_sit->sum = 0;                                                                                                                                                
    for(i = 0; i <= local_sit->n; i++)                                                                                                                                 
      local_sit->sum += i;                                                                                                                                             
  }    
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])                                                                                                                                      
{                                                                                                                                                                     
  pthread_t    thread1;                                                                                                                                               
  pthread_t    thread2;                                                                                                                                               
  my_struct_t  si1;                                                                                                                                                   
  my_struct_t  si2;                                                                                                                                                   
  int          iret1;                                                                                                                                                 
  int          iret2;                                                                                                                                                 
  time_t       t1;                                                                                                                                                    
  time_t       t2;                                                                                                                                                    


  si1.n = 10000;                                                                                                                                                      
  si2.n = 20000;                                                                                                                                                      

  if(argc == 2 && atoi(argv[1]) == 1) // Use "./prog 1" to test the time of multithreaded version                                                                                                                                
  {                                                                                                                                                                   
    t1 = time(0);                                                                                                                                                     
    iret1 = pthread_create(&thread1, NULL, sumFrom1, (void*)&si1);      
    iret2 = pthread_create(&thread2, NULL, sumFrom1, (void*)&si2);                                                                                                     
    pthread_join(thread1, NULL);                                                                                                                                      
    pthread_join(thread2, NULL);                                                                                                                                      
    t2 = time(0);                                                                                                                                                     

    printf("Thread 1 returns: %d\n",iret1);                                                                                                                           
    printf("Thread 2 returns: %d\n",iret2);                                                                                                                           
    printf("sum of 1..%d: %d\n", si1.n, si1.sum);                                                                                                                     
    printf("sum of 1..%d: %d\n", si2.n, si2.sum);                                                                                                                     
    printf("time: %d seconds", t2 - t1);                                                                                                                              

  }                                                                                                                                                                   
  else     // Use "./prog" to test the time of sequential version                                                                                                                                                           
  {                                                                                                                                                                   
    t1 = time(0);                                                                                                                                                     
    sumFrom1((void*)&si1);                                                                                                                                            
    sumFrom1((void*)&si2);                                                                                                                                            
    t2 = time(0);                                                                                                                                                     

    printf("sum of 1..%d: %d\n", si1.n, si1.sum);                                                                                                                     
    printf("sum of 1..%d: %d\n", si2.n, si2.sum);                                                                                                                     
    printf("time: %d seconds", t2 - t1); 
  }                                                                                             
  return 0;                                                                                         
}   

UPDATE1:

After a little googling on “false sharing” (Thanks, @Martin James!), I think it is the main cause. There are (at least) two ways to fix it:

The first way is inserting a buffer zone between the two structs (Thanks, @dasblinkenlight):

my_struct_t  si1;
char         memHolder[4096];
my_struct_t  si2; 

Without -O2, the time consuming decreases from ~156s to ~38s.

The second way is avoiding frequently updating sit->sum, which can be realized using a temp variable in sumFrom1 (as @Jens Gustedt replied):

for(int sum = 0, j = 0; j < nsim; j++)              
{
  sum = 0;
  for(i = 0; i <= local_sit->n; i++)
    sum += i;
}
local_sit->sum = sum;

Without -O2, the time consuming decreases from ~156s to ~35s or ~109s (It has two peaks! I don’t know why.). With -O2, the time consuming stays ~8s.

Answer 1

By modifying your code to

typedef struct my_struct
{
  size_t n;
  size_t sum;
}my_struct_t;

void *sumFrom1(void* sit)
{
  my_struct_t* local_sit = sit;
  size_t nsim = 500000;  // Loops for consuming time
  size_t n = local_sit->n;
  size_t sum = 0;
  for(size_t j = 0; j < nsim; j++)
  {
    for(size_t i = 0; i <= n; i++)
      sum += i;
  }
  local_sit->sum = sum;
  return 0;
}

the phenomenon disappears. The problems you had:

• using int as a datatype is completely wrong for such a test. Your
  figures where such that the sum overflowed. Overflow of signed types is undefined behavior. You are lucky that it didn’t eat your lunch.
• having bounds and summation variables with indirection buys you
  additional loads and stores, that in case of -O0 are really done as
  such, with all the implications of false sharing and stuff like that.

Your code also observed other errors:

• a missing include for atoi
• superflouous cast to and from void*
• printing of time_t as int

Please compile your code with -Wall before posting.