---
title: "Concurrent maps · baby steps"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/concurrent-maps-baby-steps-oyl5izqs9
source_url: https://smallcultfollowing.com/babysteps/blog/2012/07/13/concurrent-maps
type: article
source: "Niko Matsakis - baby steps"
published: 2026-05-31T07:54:30.055Z
updated: 2026-05-31T09:17:17.710Z
tags: ["rust", "distributed-systems"]
reading_time: 4
upvotes: 0
comments: 0
language: en
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Concurrent maps · baby steps

**[Niko Matsakis - baby steps](https://daily.dev/sources/babysteps)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

A discussion on adapting shared-memory concurrent data structures like hash maps into actor-based distributed designs, motivated by work on the Servo browser engine in Rust. The post explores several approaches: striping a hashmap across tasks (one per core), dynamic rebalancing via task splitting, and self-building hashtables for distributed CSS matching. It also touches on a concurrent B-tree where each node is an actor, noting that locking becomes trivial in this model. The author reflects on the advantages of avoiding shared mutable memory for correctness and security, and expresses interest in prototyping these designs in Rust.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://smallcultfollowing.com/babysteps/blog/2012/07/13/concurrent-maps>

## Similar posts on daily.dev

- [Concurrent Servers: Part 7](https://daily.dev/posts/concurrent-servers-part-7-p5cowxjcu) · Eli Bendersky · 3 upvotes · 0 comments

---

Tags: [#rust](https://daily.dev/tags/rust), [#distributed-systems](https://daily.dev/tags/distributed-systems)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/concurrent-maps-baby-steps-oyl5izqs9)