Criticality stacks
Kristof Du Bois, Stijn Eyerman, Jennifer B. Sartor, Lieven Eeckhout · 2013
Analyzing multi-threaded programs is quite challenging, but is necessary to obtain good multicore performance while saving energy. Due to synchronization, certain threads make others wait, because they hold a lock or have yet to reach a barrier. We call these critical threads, i.e., threads whose performance is determinative of program performance as a whole. Identifying these threads can reveal numerous optimization opportunities, for the software developer and for hardware.