Node.js Worker Threads for CPU Tasks

Worker Threads enable parallel JavaScript execution. Here's how to use them for CPU-intensive work.

Practical Example: Image Processing#

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Best Practices#

When to Use:
✓ CPU-intensive computations
✓ Image/video processing
✓ Cryptographic operations
✓ Complex parsing/serialization

When NOT to Use:
✗ I/O bound operations
✗ Simple tasks (overhead > benefit)
✗ Operations needing main thread access
✗ Tasks requiring DOM access

Patterns:
✓ Use worker pools for reuse
✓ Transfer large data with transferList
✓ Use SharedArrayBuffer for shared state
✓ Implement proper error handling

Worker Threads enable true parallelism for CPU-intensive tasks. Use worker pools for efficiency, SharedArrayBuffer for shared state, and Atomics for synchronization. Reserve workers for computationally heavy operations where the parallelism benefit outweighs the overhead.

Node.js Worker Threads for CPU Tasks

Basic Worker#

Promise Wrapper#

Worker Pool#

Inline Worker#

Shared Memory#

Atomics for Synchronization#

Message Channels#

Practical Example: Image Processing#

Express Integration#

Best Practices#

Conclusion#

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