Global memory management for a multi computer system
Dejan S. Milojicic, Steve Hoyle, Alan Messer, Albert Carreira Muñoz, L. Russell, Tom Wylegala, Vivekanand Vellanki, Stephen Childs · 2000
In this paper, we discuss the design and implementation of fault-aware Global Memory Management (GMM) for a multikernel architecture. Scalability of today's systems is limited by SMP hardware, as well as by the underlying commodity operating systems (OS), such as Microsoft Windows or Linux. High availability is limited by insufficiently robust software and by hardware failures. Improving scalability and high availability are the main motivations for a multikernel architecture, and GMM plays a key role in achieving this. In our design, we extend the underlying OS with GMM supported by a set of recovery modules in the form of device drivers. While the underlying OS manages the virtual address space and the local physical address space, the GMM module manages the global physical address space. We describe the GMM design, prototype implementation, and the use of GMM.