Memory systems for parallel programming
Bradley Richards, James R. Larus · 1996
Distributed Shared-Memory (DSM ) computers, which partition physical memory among a collection of workstation-like computing nodes, are emerging as the way to implement parallel computers, as they promise scalability and high performance. Shared-memory DSM machines use a coherence protocol to manage the replication of data and to ensure that a parallel program sees a consistent view of memory. Applications have very different patterns of communication and no single, general-purpose protocol suits all programs. This has prompted interest in systems in which a protocol is implemented in flexible software instead of being fixed in hardware. DSM machines with software-implemented coherence protocols provide opportunities for a variety of more complex and application-specific protocols and allow for protocols that do not just ensure consistent memory, but also provide new functionality and semantics. Parallel programming has long faced a tension between the goals of high performance and e...