What is most CPU efficient method to make the worker threads wait for tasks?

Question

In my current C#/NET 3.5 application, I have a task queue (thread safe) and I have 5 worker threads that has to constantly look for tasks in the queue. If a task is available, any one worker will dequeue the task and take required action.

My worker thread class is as follows:

public class WorkerThread
{
    //ConcurrentQueue is my implementation of thread safe queue
    //Essentially just a wrapper around Queue<T> with synchronization locks
    readonly ConcurrentQueue<CheckPrimeTask> mQ; 
    readonly Thread mWorker;
    bool mStop;

    public WorkerThread (ConcurrentQueue<CheckPrimeTask> aQ) {
        mQ = aQ;
        mWorker = new Thread (Work) {IsBackground = true};
        mStop = false;
    }

    private void Work () {
        while (!mStop) {
            if (mQ.Count == 0) {
                Thread.Sleep (0);
                continue;
            }

            var task = mQ.Dequeue ();
            //Someone else might have been lucky in stealing
            //the task by the time we dequeued it!!
            if (task == null) 
                continue;

            task.IsPrime = IsPrime (task.Number);
            task.ExecutedBy = Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId;
            //Ask the threadpool to execute the task callback to 
            //notify completion
            ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem (task.CallBack, task);
        }
    }

    private bool IsPrime (int number) {
        int limit = Convert.ToInt32 (Math.Sqrt (number));
        for (int i = 2; i <= limit; i++) {
            if (number % i == 0)
                return false;
        }

        return true;
    }

    public void Start () {
        mStop = false;
        mWorker.Start ();
    }

    public void Stop () {
        mStop = true;
    }
}

Problem is that when queue is empty, it consumes too much CPU (nearly 98%). I tried AutoResetEvent to notify the workers that queue has been changed. So they effectively wait for that signal to set. It has braught down the CPU to nearly 0% but I am not entirely sure whether this is the best method. Can you suggest a better method to keep the threads idle without hurting CPU usage?

Answer 1

Check out this implementation of a BlockingQueue. If the queue is empty, it uses Monitor.Wait() to put the thread to sleep. When an item is added, it uses Monitor.Pulse() to wake up a thread that is sleeping on the empty queue.

Another technique is to use a semaphore. Each time you add an item to a queue, call Release(). When you want an item from a queue, call WaitOne().