C++ Deep Dive: Memory Barriers and Cache Coherence

Online Workshops + Training Sessions Available through April-June 2026 from only £150 ($200) 14 Sessions Available on a range of topics. Student Rates available from only £45/$60! US and EU friendly session times. https://cpponline.uk/ --- Concurrency – All the Way Down - Ofek Shilon - C++Online 2026 std::atomic and std::memory_order are utterly opaque abstractions. It feels like they were put in place to hide some monstrosity that is too complex for mortals to comprehend, and inevitably when trying to understand the underlying reality, the explanations end with 'the processor does weird things' and 'you can think about it as if...'. Well, 'think about it as if' no more. In this talk we'll present the gory and wonderful mechanics of write buffers, invalidation queues, and some cache coherence protocols. We'll explain how modern hardware design makes different cores have different views of memory, and what the instructions for fence and read-modify-write do exactly - for both x86/64 and ARM/RISC-V. We'll also discuss the hardware implementation of fences and atomics. This is an advanced low-level talk, placed at the borderline of software development and electrical engineering, on topics rarely surveyed at C++ conference talks. Slides: https://github.com/CppOnlineConferenc... --- Work at Hudson River Trading (HRT): https://tinyurl.com/safxfctf --- Ofek Shilon A Mathematics MA by training, but a 25Y C++ developer, writer and speaker in both the Linux and MS universes. Compiler-explorer ('godbolt') maintainer, fascinated by compilers, debuggers and pretty much anything low level. Fiercely hated by his cat for no apparent reason. --- C++Online is the annual, online only conference for the entire C++ community. The conference is designed to provide a more accessible option for C++ developers who might find attending other international C++ conferences more difficult or financially restrictive, at a time of year where we traditionally see less in-person cpp conferences due to weather, holidays and other restrictions. The Online C++ Conference - https://cpponline.uk   / cpponline   https://x.com/cpponline https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?...   / cpponline   https://mastodon.social/@cpponline https://bsky.app/profile/cpponline.bs... --- Streamed & Edited by Digital Medium Ltd - online.digital-medium.co.uk --- C++Online - The Online C++ Conference organized by Shaved Yaks: https://shavedyaks.com/ & Digital Medium: https://events.digital-medium.co.uk --- #cpp #cplusplus #cpponline #cppprogramming #cplusplusprogramming #softwaredevelopment #softwareengineering #coding #code #computerscience #technology #technews #programming #programmer