Work Contracts: A High-Performance Solution for Asynchronous Task Management in C++

The article introduces Work Contracts, a high-performance, lock-free, asynchronous task management system for C++. Work Contracts offers superior performance compared to other lock-free MPMC queue implementations, especially under high contention. The author explains that the typical approach to managing asynchronous tasks involves pushing them into a queue and executing them once they reach the front of the queue. However, this approach can be inefficient and prone to race conditions. Work Contracts provides a different approach, where tasks are executed in a highly deterministic manner and are intended to be executed by a single thread. This approach is beneficial for tasks that are often repeated and part of a longer chain of predictable tasks. Work Contracts aims to reduce the overhead of producing and consuming tasks from a queue, minimizing latency in low latency environments. The article highlights the challenges of synchronizing access to a task queue and the additional synchronization woes that can arise. Overall, Work Contracts offers a promising solution for efficient and reliable asynchronous task management in C++.