Multi-Threaded Processes For Opening And Saving Documents

• US 20090327668A1
• Filed: 06/27/2008
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zaika, Igor, Sudzilouski, Uladzislau
• Granted Patent: US 8,255,905 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 712/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/506 Constraint
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/509 Offload
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups

Abstract

Tools and techniques are described for multi-threaded processing for opening and saving documents. These tools may provide load processes for reading documents from storage devices, and for loading the documents into applications. These tools may spawn a load process thread for executing a given load process on a first processing unit, and an application thread may execute a given application on a second processing unit. A first pipeline may be created for executing the load process thread, with the first pipeline performing tasks associated with loading the document into the application. A second pipeline may be created for executing the application process thread, with the second pipeline performing tasks associated with operating on the documents. The tasks in the first pipeline are configured to pass tokens as input to the tasks in the second pipeline.

Claims

1. At least one computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

providing a load process for reading at least one document from at least one storage device, and loading the document into an application;

spawning a load process thread to execute the load process on a first processing unit;

creating a first pipeline for executing the load process thread, wherein the first pipeline is for performing a plurality of tasks associated with loading the document into the application; and

creating at least a second pipeline for executing the application, wherein the second pipeline is for performing a plurality of tasks associated with operating on at least the one document, wherein the tasks in the first pipeline are configured to pass tokens as input to the tasks in the second pipeline.

2. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions for spawning a load process thread include instructions for spawning a load process thread for executing on a first processing core provided by a multi-core central processing unit (CPU), and wherein the instructions for spawning an application thread include instructions for spawning an application thread for executing on a second processing core provided by the multi-core CPU.

3. The storage medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions for spawning an application thread to execute the application on at least a second processing unit, wherein the instructions for spawning a load process thread include instructions for spawning a load process thread for executing on a first processor provided by a multiprocessor system, and wherein the instructions for spawning an application thread include instructions for spawning an application thread for executing on a second processor provided by the multiprocessor system.

4. The storage medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions for providing a buffering mechanism to receive the tokens from the tasks in the first pipeline, and to pass the tokens to the tasks in the second pipeline.

5. The storage medium of claim 4, wherein the instructions for providing a buffering mechanism include instructions for providing a circular queue for storing the tokens received from the tasks in the first pipeline, and for providing at least one synchronization primitive for regulating access to the circular queue.

6. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein the tasks in the first pipeline operate separately and independently from the tasks in the second pipeline.

7. The storage medium of claim 1, wherein at least one of the tasks in the first pipeline operate in parallel with at least one of the tasks in the second pipeline.

8. The storage medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions for compressing a string variable associated with reading the document.

9. At least one computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

providing a save process for writing at least one document from at least one application, and storing the document into at least one storage device;

spawning an application thread to execute the application on a first processing unit;

spawning a save process thread to execute the save process on at least a second processing unit;

creating a first pipeline for executing the application thread, wherein the first pipeline is for performing a plurality of tasks associated with operating on at least the one document;

creating at least a second pipeline for executing the save process thread, wherein the second pipeline is for performing a plurality of tasks associated with writing at least the one document to the storage device, wherein the tasks in the first pipeline are configured to pass tokens as input to the tasks in the second pipeline.

10. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions for spawning a save process thread include instructions for spawning a save process thread for executing on a first processing core provided by a multi-core central processing unit (CPU), and wherein the instructions for spawning an application thread include instructions for spawning an application thread for executing on a second processing core provided by the multi-core CPU.

11. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions for spawning a save process thread include instructions for spawning a save process thread for executing on a first processor provided by a multiprocessor system, and wherein the instructions for spawning an application thread include instructions for spawning an application thread for executing on a second processor provided by the multiprocessor system.

12. The storage medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions for providing a buffering mechanism to receive the tokens from the tasks in the first pipeline, and to pass the tokens to the tasks in the second pipeline.

13. The storage medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions for providing a buffering mechanism include instructions for providing a circular queue for storing the tokens received from the tasks in the first pipeline, and for providing at least one synchronization primitive for regulating access to the circular queue.

14. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the tasks in the first pipeline operate separately and independently from the tasks in the second pipeline.

15. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein at least one of the tasks in the first pipeline operate in parallel with at least one of the tasks in the second pipeline.

16. The storage medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions for resolving at least one of the tokens to a string variable associated with storing the document.

17. A system comprising:

a plurality of processing units;

at least one computer-readable storage medium coupled to communicate with the processing units, wherein the storage medium includes computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method comprising;

providing a load process for reading at least one document from at least one storage device and loading the document into an application;

providing a save process for writing the document from the application and storing the document into at least one storage device;

spawning a load process thread to execute the load process on a first processing unit;

spawning an application thread to execute the application on a second processing unit;

creating a first pipeline for executing the load process thread, wherein the first pipeline is for performing a plurality of tasks associated with loading the document into the application;

creating at least a second pipeline for executing the application thread, wherein the second pipeline is for performing a plurality of tasks associated with operating on at least the one document, wherein the tasks in the first pipeline are configured to pass tokens as input to the tasks in the second pipeline;

spawning a save process thread to execute the save process on a third processing unit;

creating at least a third pipeline for executing the save process thread, wherein the third pipeline is for performing a plurality of tasks associated with writing the document to the storage device, wherein the tasks in the second pipeline are configured to pass tokens as input to the tasks in the third pipeline.

18. The storage medium of claim 17, wherein the processing units include respective processor cores provided by a multi-core central processing unit (CPU), wherein the instructions for spawning a load process thread include instructions for spawning a load process thread for executing on a first processing core, wherein the instructions for spawning an application thread include instructions for spawning an application thread for executing on a second processing core, and wherein the instructions for spawning a save process thread include instructions for spawning a save process thread for executing on a third processing core.

19. The storage medium of claim 17, wherein the processing units include respective processors provided by a multiprocessor system, wherein the instructions for spawning a load process thread include instructions for spawning a load process thread for executing on a first processor, wherein the instructions for spawning an application thread include instructions for spawning an application thread for executing on a second processor, and wherein the instructions for spawning a save process thread include instructions for spawning a save process thread for executing on a third processor.

20. The storage medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions for providing a buffering mechanism to:

receive the tokens from the tasks in the first pipeline and to pass the tokens to the tasks in the second pipeline in connection with reading the document from the storage device, and

receive the tokens from the tasks in the second pipeline and to pass the tokens to the tasks in the third pipeline in connection with writing the document from the application;

provide a circular queue for storing the tokens received from the tasks in the first pipeline in connection with reading the document from the storage device, for storing the tokens received from the tasks and the second pipeline in connection with writing the document from the application, and for providing at least one synchronization primitive for regulating access to the circular queue.