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311

answers:

3

In the past I've used performance profiling tools such as nprof, Equatec profiler and Yourkit profiler to identify and remove/reduce performance bottlenecks in code mostly running in one thread (serialized execution). Nowadays I write a lot of multi-threaded code which can be slowed down by lock contention; what tools and tricks can be used to identify where lock contention is occuring and by how much?

+2  A: 

This is available soon, currently shipping in Visual Studio 2010 beta 2. Here's a video of the tool.

Hans Passant
Very interesting. This is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. For those interested these tools are available in the freely available Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2; However, be sure to get the Premium or Ultimate editions. Also the thread visualizations shown in linked video are only available under some operating systems - they weren't available on my XP box but were enabled on my Vista box (both 64bit BTW).
locster
+1  A: 

Try ThreadChecker from Intel. It works on both Windows and Linux. If you're working on Windows, then try Parallel Studio. It provides a easy-to-use locks-and-waits profiler. It shows overall concurrency during the runtime, which gives hints on lock contentions and poor concurrency. The tools are doing right now what you want.

minjang
A: 

For developing on Windows, Software Verification have some (http://www.softwareverify.com/thread.html).

For C, C++, Delphi try Thread Validator.

For Java, there is also Java Thread Validator.

There are also experimental versions for Python and Ruby.

Stephen Kellett