Intent to Prototype: Main thread Atomics.wait

[Chromestatus]

Contact emails

tli...@google.com

Explainer

https://github.com/WebAssembly/shared-everything-threads/blob/main/proposals/shared-everything-threads/WaitOnMainThread.md

Specification

No information provided

Summary

Allow Atomics.wait on the main browser thread. Atomics.wait currently throws on the main thread, which nudges developers towards using spinlocks instead. Spinlocks are worse for performance and power usage than Atomics.wait, so this change allows developers to write more efficient multithreaded applications.

Blink component

Blink>JavaScript

Web Feature ID

Missing feature

Motivation

Atomics.wait currently throws unconditionally on the main thread. This was originally meant to nudge developers toward architectures (e.g. message passing with postMessage or lock-free data structures) that do not risk blocking the main thread, but in practice it has just pushed developers to use spinlocks instead. Spinlocks are worse than Atomics.wait for performance and power consumption, so allowing Atomics.wait on the main thread will help developers create more efficient multithreaded applications.

Initial public proposal

https://github.com/WebAssembly/shared-everything-threads/discussions/112

Goals for experimentation

None

Requires code in //chrome?

False

Tracking bug

https://g-issues.chromium.org/issues/505518777

Estimated milestones

No milestones specified

Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status

https://chromestatus.com/feature/5140239829041152?gate=5106884509040640

This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status.