Use of Global Extended Memory for Distributed Transaction Processing
Erhard Rahm · 1991
In current mainframe architectures, extended memory is used as a page-addressable main memory extension to improve I/O performance. If made non-volatile, extended memory can significantly increase transaction pro-cessing performance. In this paper, we study how locally distributed trans-action systems may use shared extended memory to support high transac-tion rates and short response times. We outline how a specific store called GEM (Global Extended Memory) can be utilized to improve I/O perfor-mance and inter-system communication and cooperation. It turns out that distributed transaction systems of the “shared disk ” type (data sharing sys-tems) can benefit most from such a shared store. We describe simple yet efficient schemes using GEM for global concurrency control and con-structing a global log file for such systems. 1