How to get PHP script use more CPU for simple looping task?

Question

I have a simple script that tries to find MD5 collisions via brute force.

// Pseudo:
while (runtime < 25 seconds) {
  random_hash1 = random_hash();
  random_hash2 = random_hash();

  if (random_hash1 == random_hash2) {
    notify_user();
  }
}

It's working fine itself but I only get around 8 million iterations during this 25 second window. During the run my cpu usage stays at 0-1%. I'm running on 4 cores at 3.8ghz. How can I utilize my cpu more with PHP?

If I did this with java or c++ I would instantly eat whole CPU with my while (1) loop and the iteration count would boost up a lot but I would like to do this with PHP.

PS. I know finding collision is impropable but I do it for fun.

I think you can try run it in parallel threads. Something like this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11747304/executing-multiple-php-scripts-in-parallel-and-being-notified-when-finished — stepozer, Jun 14 '15 at 19:35

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 14 '15 at 19:38

How can I utilize my cpu more with PHP?

You could try a multi-threading approach using pthreads

From the documentation:

pthreads is an Object Orientated API that allows user-land multi-threading in PHP. It includes all the tools you need to create multi-threaded applications targeted at the Web or the Console. PHP applications can create, read, write, execute and synchronize with Threads, Workers and Stackables.

How to get PHP script use more CPU for simple looping task?

1 Answers1