在python的不同内核上运行方法

Question

Is there any easy way to make 2 methods, let's say MethodA() and MethodB() run in 2 different cores? I don't mean 2 different threads. I'm running in Windows, but I'd like to know if it is possible to be platform independent.

edit: And what about

http://docs.python.org/dev/library/multiprocessing.html and parallel python ?

Answer 1

You have to use separate processes (because of the often-mentioned GIL). The multiprocessing module is here to help.

from multiprocessing import Process
from somewhere import A, B 
if __name__ == '__main__':
    procs = [ Process(target=t) for t in (A,B) ]

    for p in procs: 
        p.start()

    for p in procs: 
        p.join()

Answer 2

Assuming you use CPython (the reference implementation) the answer is NO because of the Global Interpreter Lock . In CPython threads are mainly used when there is much IO to do (one thread waits, another does computation).

Answer 3

In general, running different threads is the best portable way to run on multiple cores. Of course, in Python, the global interpreter lock makes this a moot point -- only one thread will make progress at a time.

Answer 4

Because of the global interpreter lock, Python programs only ever run one thread at a time. If you want true multicore Python programming, you could look into Jython (which has access to the JVM's threads), or the brilliant stackless , which has Go -like channels and tasklets.