Concurrency

Illustration of a B‑link tree node with side pointers bypassing locks.

Reducing Lock Contention with Side Pointers in B‑link Trees

Side pointers provide a low‑overhead way to break hot‑spot locks in B‑link trees, improving scalability without sacrificing correctness.

Illustration of isolated Erlang processes communicating via message passing.

How Erlang Process Isolation Governs the Actor Model

Erlang’s process isolation is the core of its Actor Model implementation, delivering robust fault‑tolerance and massive scalability.

Illustration of multiple locks guarding sections of a hash map.

The Hidden Mechanics of Lock Striping in Hash Maps

A deep dive into lock striping, revealing how it reduces contention in concurrent hash maps and how to apply it effectively.

Illustration of overlapping threads and memory epochs.

The Thread Safety Tradeoffs of Epoch Based Reclamation

A deep dive into epoch based reclamation, its thread‑safety model, performance trade‑offs, and how it stacks up against alternative reclamation schemes.

Illustration of a low-level lock mechanism in code.

Building Userland Mutexes with the Futex System Call

A deep dive into constructing efficient mutexes in user space with futex, complete with code examples and best practices.