[tor-relays] Multi-core Support

[Roman Mamedov]

On Tue, 02 Jun 2015 11:13:13 -0400
12xBTM <12xbtm at 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.

-- 
With respect,
Roman
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