#561: TonIO, a Multi-threaded Async Runtime for Python

#561: TonIO, a Multi-threaded Async Runtime for Python

September 4, 2026 · 1h 16m · Episode 561

About this episode

Giovanni Barillari discusses TonIO, a new async runtime for Python that utilizes multi-threading and avoids the GIL.

How many cores does your machine have, 10, 18? Your async Python code uses just one of them. That isn't a bug in asyncio. That's the design, and optimizing event loops to be faster by 20% doesn't change it. So Giovanni Barillari started over. Joe is the creator of Granian, the Rust-based server that powers Talk Python. His new project is TonIO, an async runtime written from scratch for free-threaded Python. Real threads, a handful of primitives instead of asyncio's pile of them, and it flat out refuses to start if the GIL is on.

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