Threadpool implementation: condition_variables vs. yield()

Question

I try to develop a threadpool in C++ and I wonder if it is better to yield() the thread in the main loop of the worker thread or to wait on a condition variable:

void worker_thread( void )
{
    // this is more or less pseudocode
    while( !done )
    {

        if( task_available ) 
             run_task();
        else
            std::this_thread::yield();
    }
}

versus

void worker_thread( void )
{
    // this is more or less pseudocode

    std::unique_lock< std::mutex > lk( mutex_ );
    while( !done )
    {

        if( task_available ) 
             run_task();
        else
            condition_.wait( lk );
    }
}

Any ideas? Will there be any performance differences between both versions?

Answer 1

if your threads in the thread pool are constantly fed with tasks and you need fast response time, then yield is what you want, but yield will burn cpu cycles no matter what the waiting thread is doing. if not, you can use the conditional approach, threads will sleep until a task is ready (note though, a conditional can wake a thread, even if no ready signal was sent), the response time might be slower, but you will not burn cpu cycles.

i would recommend the conditional approach, and if the reaction time is too slow, switch to yield.