Many-Core Engine (MCE) for Perl example
MCE spawns a pool of workers and therefore does not fork a new process per each element of data. Instead, MCE follows a bank queuing model. Imagine the line being the data and bank-tellers the parallel workers. MCE enhances that model by adding the ability to chunk the next n elements from the input stream to the next available worker.
CORE MODULES
Three modules make up the core engine for MCE.
- MCE::Core
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Provides the Core API for Many-Core Engine. The various MCE options are described here.
- MCE::Signal
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Temporary directory creation, cleanup, and signal handling.
- MCE::Util
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Utility functions for Many-Core Engine.
There are 4 add-on modules for use with MCE.
- MCE::Candy
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Provides a collection of sugar methods and output iterators for preserving output order.
- MCE::Mutex
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Provides a simple semaphore implementation supporting threads and processes.
- MCE::Queue
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Provides a hybrid queuing implementation for MCE supporting normal queues and priority queues from a single module. MCE::Queue exchanges data via the core engine to enable queuing to work for both children (spawned from fork) and threads.
- MCE::Relay
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Enables workers to receive and pass on information orderly with zero involvement by the manager process while running.
The models take Many-Core Engine to a new level for ease of use. Two options (chunk_size and max_workers) are configured automatically as well as spawning and shutdown.
- MCE::Loop
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Provides a parallel loop utilizing MCE for building creative loops.
- MCE::Flow
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A parallel flow model for building creative applications. This makes use of user_tasks in MCE. The author has full control when utilizing this model. MCE::Flow is similar to MCE::Loop, but allows for multiple code blocks to run in parallel with a slight change to syntax.
- MCE::Grep
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Provides a parallel grep implementation similar to the native grep function.
- MCE::Map
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Provides a parallel map model similar to the native map function.
- MCE::Step
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Provides a parallel step implementation utilizing MCE::Queue between user tasks. MCE::Step is a spin off from MCE::Flow with a touch of MCE::Stream. This model, introduced in 1.506, allows one to pass data from one sub-task into the next transparently.
- MCE::Stream
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Provides an efficient parallel implementation for chaining multiple maps and greps together through user_tasks and MCE::Queue. Like with MCE::Flow, MCE::Stream can run multiple code blocks in parallel with a slight change to syntax from MCE::Map and MCE::Grep.
Miscellaneous additions included with the distribution.
- MCE::Examples
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Describes various demonstrations for MCE including a Monte Carlo simulation.
- MCE::Subs
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Exports functions mapped directly to MCE methods; e.g. mce_wid. The module allows 3 options; :manager, :worker, and :getter.
Perl 5.8.0 or later. PDL::IO::Storable is required in scripts running PDL.
The source, cookbook, and examples are hosted at GitHub.
MCE::Shared provides data sharing capabilities for MCE. It includes MCE::Hobo for running code asynchronously.
