I have a 'server' program that updates many linked lists in shared memory in response to external events. I want client programs to notice an update on any of the lists as quickly as possible (lowest latency). The server marks a linked list's node's state_ as FILLED once its data is filled in and its next pointer has been set to a valid location. Until then, its state_ is NOT_FILLED_YET. I am using memory barriers to make sure that clients don't see the state_ as FILLED before the data within is actually ready (and it seems to work, I never see corrupt data). Also, state_ is volatile to be sure the compiler doesn't lift the client's checking of it out of loops.

Keeping the server code exactly the same, I've come up with 3 different methods for the client to scan the linked lists for changes. The question is: Why is the 3rd method fastest?

Method 1: Round robin over all the linked lists (called 'channels') continuously, looking to see if any nodes have changed to 'FILLED':

void method_one()
{
    std::vector<Data*> channel_cursors;
    for(ChannelList::iterator i = channel_list.begin(); i != channel_list.end(); ++i)
    {
        Data* current_item = static_cast<Data*>(i->get(segment)->tail_.get(segment));
        channel_cursors.push_back(current_item);
    }

    while(true)
    {
        for(std::size_t i = 0; i < channel_list.size(); ++i)
        {   
            Data* current_item = channel_cursors[i];

            ACQUIRE_MEMORY_BARRIER;
            if(current_item->state_ == NOT_FILLED_YET) {
                continue;
            }

            log_latency(current_item->tv_sec_, current_item->tv_usec_);

            channel_cursors[i] = static_cast<Data*>(current_item->next_.get(segment));
        }
    }
}

Method 1 gave very low latency when then number of channels was small. But when the number of channels grew (250K+) it became very slow because of looping over all the channels. So I tried...

Method 2: Give each linked list an ID. Keep a separate 'update list' to the side. Every time one of the linked lists is updated, push its ID on to the update list. Now we just need to monitor the single update list, and check the IDs we get from it.

void method_two()
{
    std::vector<Data*> channel_cursors;
    for(ChannelList::iterator i = channel_list.begin(); i != channel_list.end(); ++i)
    {
        Data* current_item = static_cast<Data*>(i->get(segment)->tail_.get(segment));
        channel_cursors.push_back(current_item);
    }

    UpdateID* update_cursor = static_cast<UpdateID*>(update_channel.tail_.get(segment));

    while(true)
    {   
        if(update_cursor->state_ == NOT_FILLED_YET) {
            continue;
        }

        ::uint32_t update_id = update_cursor->list_id_;

        Data* current_item = channel_cursors[update_id];

        if(current_item->state_ == NOT_FILLED_YET) {
            std::cerr << "This should never print." << std::endl; // it doesn't
            continue;
        }

        log_latency(current_item->tv_sec_, current_item->tv_usec_);

        channel_cursors[update_id] = static_cast<Data*>(current_item->next_.get(segment));
        update_cursor = static_cast<UpdateID*>(update_cursor->next_.get(segment));
    }   
}

Method 2 gave TERRIBLE latency. Whereas Method 1 might give under 10us latency, Method 2 would inexplicably often given 8ms latency! Using gettimeofday it appears that the change in update_cursor->state_ was very slow to propogate from the server's view to the client's (I'm on a multicore box, so I assume the delay is due to cache). So I tried a hybrid approach...

Method 3: Keep the update list. But loop over all the channels continuously, and within each iteration check if the update list has updated. If it has, go with the number pushed onto it. If it hasn't, check the channel we've currently iterated to.

void method_three()
{
    std::vector<Data*> channel_cursors;
    for(ChannelList::iterator i = channel_list.begin(); i != channel_list.end(); ++i)
    {
        Data* current_item = static_cast<Data*>(i->get(segment)->tail_.get(segment));
        channel_cursors.push_back(current_item);
    }

    UpdateID* update_cursor = static_cast<UpdateID*>(update_channel.tail_.get(segment));

    while(true)
    {
        for(std::size_t i = 0; i < channel_list.size(); ++i)
        {
            std::size_t idx = i;

            ACQUIRE_MEMORY_BARRIER;
            if(update_cursor->state_ != NOT_FILLED_YET) {
                //std::cerr << "Found via update" << std::endl;
                i--;
                idx = update_cursor->list_id_;
                update_cursor = static_cast<UpdateID*>(update_cursor->next_.get(segment));
            }

            Data* current_item = channel_cursors[idx];

            ACQUIRE_MEMORY_BARRIER;
            if(current_item->state_ == NOT_FILLED_YET) {
                continue;
            }

            found_an_update = true;

            log_latency(current_item->tv_sec_, current_item->tv_usec_);
            channel_cursors[idx] = static_cast<Data*>(current_item->next_.get(segment));
        }
    }
}

The latency of this method was as good as Method 1, but scaled to large numbers of channels. The problem is, I have no clue why. Just to throw a wrench in things: if I uncomment the 'found via update' part, it prints between EVERY LATENCY LOG MESSAGE. Which means things are only ever found on the update list! So I don't understand how this method can be faster than method 2.

The full, compilable code (requires GCC and boost-1.41) that generates random strings as test data is at: http://pastebin.com/e3HuL0nr