Hash-based table scans on allpages-locked tables have multiple worker processes accessing the same page chain. Each worker process checks the page ID of each page in the table, but examines only the rows on those pages where page ID matches the hash value for the worker process.
The first worker process that needs a page from a new allocation unit issues a prefetch request for all pages from that unit. When the scans of other worker processes also need pages from that allocation unit, they will either find that the pages they need are already in I/O or already in cache. As the first scan to complete enters the next unit, the process is repeated.
As long as one worker process in the family performing a hash-based scan does not become stalled (waiting for a lock, for example), the hash-based table scans do not place higher demands on the pools than they place on serial processes. Since the multiple processes may read the pages much more quickly than a serial process does, they change the status of the pages from unused to used more quickly.
