Introducing a Lock-Free Vector in Rust

The article discusses the implementation of a lock-free vector in Rust, based on a paper and the Intel TBB concurrent vector. The author explains that supporting remove in a concurrent setting is a challenging problem, but an append-only vector can provide a solution. The design of the lock-free append-only vector involves writer threads acquiring an index through a shared counter and using atomic flags for initialized entries. The article also explores the memory layout for an unbounded concurrent vector, suggesting the use of a linked list of fixed-size chunks or pre-allocated chunks with a 2x growth factor. The writer discusses the benefits of the latter approach, including efficient calculation of chunk indexes. The article concludes by mentioning synchronization options for chunk allocation, such as using a Mutex or a lock-free approach. This lock-free vector implementation in Rust provides developers with a valuable tool for concurrent programming.