Peformance: Processes v's Threads

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Tim Smith - 21 Dec 2004 03:59 GMT

Hi,

I have a Service which is a single executable and 10-12 remoting
threads. Each thread executes database SQL, writes to files on behalf
of clients.

Will a thread ever block the entire process when waiting for a
file/database?

Assuming a server which 2-4 CPUs are there any performance penalties
for having one process with 10 threads versus 5 processes with 2
threads?

thanks!

Tim

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Aquila Deus - 21 Dec 2004 08:58 GMT

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> Will a thread ever block the entire process when waiting for a
> file/database?

No. But real disk access may block the whole system, depending on the
driver. If you have 1MB RAM and try to write 100MB per second to
hard-disk, the computer would definitely hang.

> Assuming a server which 2-4 CPUs are there any performance penalties
> for having one process with 10 threads versus 5 processes with 2
> threads?

It usually takes more time to switch threads in different processes
because their data is not shared. Besides, since .NET's AppDomain can
provide isolation within a single process, you have no reason to use
multiple-processes at all (though AppDomain is not as solid as process
because of unmanaged code)

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Peformance: Processes v's Threads

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