On Tue, 02 Jun 2015 11:13:13 -0400 12xBTM 12xbtm@gmail.com wrote:
Improving multi-core support can allow users to saturate high bandwidth connections with cheaper processors, less setup, and just more efficient deployment of high-capacity nodes in general. Improving multi-core support should be a major priority.
Sure but I doubt anyone contests that it's better to have multicore support, than to not have it. However that work doesn't get automatically done.
One quick and simple stop-gap alternative that I suggested some time ago would be to stop ignoring more than two relays per IP address.
With the IPv4 shortage and abundance of multi-core CPUs, raising that limit to let's say 4, would at least allow many people to run a Tor process per core on the same single IPv4 that they have (utilizing up to four cores, not just two).
Considering that Tor is already somewhat multi-threaded (each process can use up to "120-130%" CPU), that might be just enough in most circumstances, since true 6-8-core CPUs are rare, and what's seen more often beyond 4 cores is either Intel HT or AMD's "light" core technologies.
Of course the management (and memory) overhead of multiple processes is still there, so proper multi-core scaling is the ideal final goal.