Atomic Counters in Scilab

In Scilab, we don’t have built-in atomic operations or concurrency primitives like goroutines. However, we can simulate the concept using Scilab’s parallel processing capabilities with the Parallel Computing Toolbox. Here’s an equivalent implementation:

function atomic_counters()
    // Initialize the counter
    global counter;
    counter = 0;

    // Number of workers
    n_workers = 50;
    
    // Create a parallel pool
    if ~isempty(gcp('nocreate'))
        delete(gcp('nocreate'));
    end
    parpool(n_workers);

    // Define the worker function
    function worker_function()
        for i = 1:1000
            // Simulate atomic increment
            global counter;
            counter = counter + 1;
        end
    end

    // Execute the workers in parallel
    parfor i = 1:n_workers
        worker_function();
    end

    // Display the final counter value
    disp(['ops: ', string(counter)]);

    // Close the parallel pool
    delete(gcp);
endfunction

// Run the function
atomic_counters();

This Scilab script demonstrates a similar concept to atomic counters, although it’s not truly atomic due to Scilab’s limitations. Here’s how it works:

1. We define a global variable counter to keep track of our operations.

2. We set up a parallel pool with 50 workers using the Parallel Computing Toolbox.

3. We define a worker_function that increments the counter 1000 times.

4. We use parfor to execute the worker function 50 times in parallel.

5. Finally, we display the total number of operations and close the parallel pool.

To run this script, save it as atomic_counters.sce and execute it in Scilab:

--> exec('atomic_counters.sce', -1)
ops: 50000

Note that this implementation is not truly atomic and may produce race conditions. In a real-world scenario, you might need to implement proper synchronization mechanisms or use external libraries for true atomic operations in Scilab.

Also, keep in mind that Scilab’s parallel computing capabilities may vary depending on your system configuration and the version of Scilab you’re using.