Shared memory ought to be commonplace
Michael Lee Scott, W. Garnett · 2003
Shared memory as a programming abstraction is widely used within parallel applications. It is not widely used between applications. It is suggested that shared memory is both faster and more intuitive than the principal alternatives in many cases, and that the general disuse of shared memory facilities in systems such as Unix is due in large part to a lack of appropriate tools. A series of measures to make shared memory more convenient is being pursued. Dynamic linking is used to allow programs to access shared or persistent data in the same way they access ordinary variables and functions. Memory and files are unified into a single-level store that facilitates the sharing of pointers and capitalizes on emerging 64-bit architectures. Existing interfaces and tools are exploited to remain backward-compatible with Unix.>