[ANN] Hydra VM: A multi-core capable Croquet VM

> Folks -
>
> In its ongoing commitment to Open Source, Qwaq has decided to release  
> the first multi-core capable Croquet VM under the MIT license.
>
> Hydra VM is a virtual machine capable of running multiple Croquet images  
> side-by-side, therefore being able to effectively utilize multi-core  
> CPUs. Hydra VM is still in an early phase of development, but given the  
> (very successful) early results, Qwaq has decided to make it available  
> to general public in the hope that other people will help Igor to make  
> further progress in developing Hydra VM.
>
> The offical release is available here:
>
>    http://www.qwaq.com/HydraVM
>
> and contains the following files:
>
> * HydraVM-bin.zip - A prebuilt Windows version of Hydra VM.
> * HydraVM-src.zip - The (C) source tree for building Hydra VM.
> * HydraVM-pkg.zip - The (Squeak) packages needed to build Hydra VM.
>
> Enjoy!
>
> Cheers,
>    - Andreas (on behalf of Qwaq)
>
>

> Folks -
>
>  In its ongoing commitment to Open Source, Qwaq has decided to release
>  the first multi-core capable Croquet VM under the MIT license.
>
>  Hydra VM is a virtual machine capable of running multiple Croquet images
>  side-by-side, therefore being able to effectively utilize multi-core
>  CPUs. Hydra VM is still in an early phase of development, but given the
>  (very successful) early results, Qwaq has decided to make it available
>  to general public in the hope that other people will help Igor to make
>  further progress in developing Hydra VM.
>
>  The offical release is available here:
>
>    http://www.qwaq.com/HydraVM
>
>  and contains the following files:
>
>  * HydraVM-bin.zip - A prebuilt Windows version of Hydra VM.
>  * HydraVM-src.zip - The (C) source tree for building Hydra VM.
>  * HydraVM-pkg.zip - The (Squeak) packages needed to build Hydra VM.
>
>  Enjoy!
>
>  Cheers,
>    - Andreas (on behalf of Qwaq)
>
>

> Stephen Pair wrote:
>  > How does one start a second image (or does it do this automatically
>  > based on the number of cores)?
>
>
> Load the HydraVM package and execute:
>
>    HydraVM saveAsHeadlessImage: 'core.image'
>
>  This will save the current image in a form ready for loading it in the
>  background. When you've saved it, start it via:
>
>    HydraVM loadAndRunNewImage: 'core.image'
>
>
>  > On my machine, it seems to run ok for about a minute or so and then
>  > freeze up (this is on a Windows XP core duo machine).
>
>
> Interesting. Others have mentioned the same effect. I'm using a slightly
>  older version of the VM which seems a little more stable (but I know
>  Igor is looking into the problem).
>

> On 22/02/2008, Andreas Raab <[hidden email]> wrote:
>  > Stephen Pair wrote:
>  >  > How does one start a second image (or does it do this automatically
>  >  > based on the number of cores)?
>  >
>  >
>  > Load the HydraVM package and execute:
>  >
>  >    HydraVM saveAsHeadlessImage: 'core.image'
>  >
>  >  This will save the current image in a form ready for loading it in the
>  >  background. When you've saved it, start it via:
>  >
>  >    HydraVM loadAndRunNewImage: 'core.image'
>  >
>  >
>  >  > On my machine, it seems to run ok for about a minute or so and then
>  >  > freeze up (this is on a Windows XP core duo machine).
>  >
>  >
>  > Interesting. Others have mentioned the same effect. I'm using a slightly
>  >  older version of the VM which seems a little more stable (but I know
>  >  Igor is looking into the problem).
>  >
>
>
> This was introduced due to my latest changes. Sorry guys i didn't meant that. :)
>  I had freezing problems on my own PC, and did some fixes to eliminate
>  that before releasing an update. As it turned out, something in
>  environment (Windows?) causing VM to freeze, because i tested same
>  images and with same VM binaries and it worked just fine on my PC.
>
>

> At work, we have a highly distributed system (some customers are running
> as many as 50 nodes with a mix of VW and C++ processes on each).
>  Occassionally some of our people in the field or customers complain
> that any one process isn't taking advantage of the multi-core
> architectures they run on.  After reminding them that in fact we are
> using those CPUs because we are running many processes on those nodes,
> we also highlight the fact that our C++ component, which utilizes many
> threads (in a retrospectively naive way), actually degrades in
> performance when you drop it onto a multi-core machine (and it degrades
> badly).  All those highly active threads contending for the same shared
> memory isn't quite so good.  ;)
>
> - Stephen
>
> On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 8:22 PM, Igor Stasenko <[hidden email]
> <mailto:[hidden email]>> wrote:
>
>     On 22/02/2008, Andreas Raab <[hidden email]
>     <mailto:[hidden email]>> wrote:
>      > Stephen Pair wrote:
>      >  > How does one start a second image (or does it do this
>     automatically
>      >  > based on the number of cores)?
>      >
>      >
>      > Load the HydraVM package and execute:
>      >
>      >    HydraVM saveAsHeadlessImage: 'core.image'
>      >
>      >  This will save the current image in a form ready for loading it
>     in the
>      >  background. When you've saved it, start it via:
>      >
>      >    HydraVM loadAndRunNewImage: 'core.image'
>      >
>      >
>      >  > On my machine, it seems to run ok for about a minute or so and
>     then
>      >  > freeze up (this is on a Windows XP core duo machine).
>      >
>      >
>      > Interesting. Others have mentioned the same effect. I'm using a
>     slightly
>      >  older version of the VM which seems a little more stable (but I know
>      >  Igor is looking into the problem).
>      >
>
>     This was introduced due to my latest changes. Sorry guys i didn't
>     meant that. :)
>     I had freezing problems on my own PC, and did some fixes to eliminate
>     that before releasing an update. As it turned out, something in
>     environment (Windows?) causing VM to freeze, because i tested same
>     images and with same VM binaries and it worked just fine on my PC.
>
>
>      >  Cheers,
>      >
>      >    - Andreas
>      >
>      >
>
>
>     --
>     Best regards,
>     Igor Stasenko AKA sig.
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>

>
>  > On my machine, it seems to run ok for about a minute or so and then
>  > freeze up (this is on a Windows XP core duo machine).
>
>
> Interesting. Others have mentioned the same effect. I'm using a slightly
>  older version of the VM which seems a little more stable (but I know
>  Igor is looking into the problem).
>
>  Cheers,
>
>    - Andreas

> On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:45:43 +0100, Igor Stasenko wrote:
>
>  ...
>
> > I'm just tested 3.9 final image + HydraVM on other PC i have at my
>  > disposal. No freezing.
>
>
> But neither 3.9 final nor HydraVM-sig.8.mcz has an implementor for
>  #installInterruptWatcher: which you send from HydraVM class>>#
>  saveAsHeadlessImage: :( or am I missing something?
>

>
>  > If someone, who experiencing freezing, could provide me a VNC
>  > connection, so i can try to figure out what is wrong.
>  > Is there anyone who could help me with that?
>  >
>  >
>
>
>
>

> On 22/02/2008, Klaus D. Witzel wrote:
>> On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:45:43 +0100, Igor Stasenko wrote:
>>
>>  ...
>>
>> > I'm just tested 3.9 final image + HydraVM on other PC i have at my
>>  > disposal. No freezing.
>>
>> But neither 3.9 final nor HydraVM-sig.8.mcz has an implementor for
>>  #installInterruptWatcher: which you send from HydraVM class>>#
>>  saveAsHeadlessImage: :( or am I missing something?
>>
>
> No, i'm talking about starting a stock image, without even loading
> anything like HydraVM package.

>
>>
>>  > So, it looks like that without external help i will be unable to deal
>>  > with this problem fast.
>>
>> Mind to add "self primitiveFailed" to all the methods of  
>> HydraVM-sig.8.mcz
>>  where it's missing, that way we can perhaps get a SqueakDebug.log even  
>> if
>>  the UI is unresponsive.
>>
> I will release new HydraVM package once i done with implementing  
> HydraStream.
> But again, it can't influence VM behavior, see my comment above :)
>
>>
>>  > If someone, who experiencing freezing, could provide me a VNC
>>  > connection, so i can try to figure out what is wrong.
>>  > Is there anyone who could help me with that?
>>  >
>>
>

> On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:26:34 +0100, Igor Stasenko wrote:
>
>
> > On 22/02/2008, Klaus D. Witzel wrote:
>  >> On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:45:43 +0100, Igor Stasenko wrote:
>  >>
>  >>  ...
>  >>
>  >> > I'm just tested 3.9 final image + HydraVM on other PC i have at my
>  >>  > disposal. No freezing.
>  >>
>  >> But neither 3.9 final nor HydraVM-sig.8.mcz has an implementor for
>  >>  #installInterruptWatcher: which you send from HydraVM class>>#
>  >>  saveAsHeadlessImage: :( or am I missing something?
>  >>
>  >
>  > No, i'm talking about starting a stock image, without even loading
>  > anything like HydraVM package.
>
>
> Ah. I have one of Pavel's MinimalMorphic.image which runs Okay with
>  Squeak.exe but with Hydra's Croquet.exe starts with just black host window
>  and many more times without even a host window. Can zip it to my server
>  for download, if that's interesting for you.
>
>

> Stephen Pair wrote:
>  > I must say, this is a really impressive development.  I really think
>  > this is the right way to approach multi-core systems.
>
>
> I agree. It's a stronger model than shared-state concurrency because you
>  model sets of objects (which is natural for the environment we're in).
>  The next step needs to be a set of tools that we can use to create
>  really small "worker images" (maybe 100k or less). At which point we not
>  only have the ability to, say, fork a few hundred of those (and take
>  care of Intels NextGen 80+ core CPUs ;-) but also get the minimal images
>  so many people are craving for and be able to load different versions of
>  code side-by-side and get a module system for free. Pretty exciting stuff.
>

>>  >
>>  > No, i'm talking about starting a stock image, without even loading
>>  > anything like HydraVM package.
>>
>>
>> Ah. I have one of Pavel's MinimalMorphic.image which runs Okay with
>>  Squeak.exe but with Hydra's Croquet.exe starts with just black host  
>> window
>>  and many more times without even a host window. Can zip it to my server
>>  for download, if that's interesting for you.
>>
>>
> Yes, of course, bring it here! :)