MGS: A Multigrain Shared Memory System

Parallel workstations, each comprising 10-100 processors, promise cost-effective general-purpose multiprocessing. This paper explores the coupling of such small- to medium-scale shared memory multiprocessors through software over a local area network to synthesize larger shared memory systems. We call these systems Distributed Scalable Shared-memory Multiprocessors (DSSMPs). This paperintroducesthe designof a sharedmemory systemthat uses multiple granularities of sharing, and presents an implementation on the Alewife multiprocessor, called MGS. Multigrain shared memory enables the collaboration of hardware and software shared memory,and is effective atexploiting a form oflocality calledmultigrain locality. The system provides efficient support for fine-grain cache-line sharing, and resorts to coarse-grain page-level sharing only when locality is violated. A framework for characterizing application performance on DSSMPs is also introduced. Using MGS, an in-depth study of several shared...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1996
• Where: ISCA
• Authors: Donald Yeung, John Kubiatowicz, Anant Agarwal
• Keywords: Hardware, ISCA 1996, Shared Memory, Shared Memory Applications, Shared Memory Multiprocessors