Software-Extended Coherent Shared Memory: Performance and Cost
This paper evaluates the tradeoffs involved in the design of the software-extended memory system of Alewife, a multiprocessor architecture that implements coherentsharedmemory through a combination of hardware and software mechanisms. For each block of memory, Alewife implements between zero and fiv...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.17.5247 http://www.lcs.mit.edu/publications/pubs/pdf/MIT-LCS-TM-493.pdf |
| Summary: | This paper evaluates the tradeoffs involved in the design of the software-extended memory system of Alewife, a multiprocessor architecture that implements coherentsharedmemory through a combination of hardware and software mechanisms. For each block of memory, Alewife implements between zero and five coherence directory pointers in hardwareand allows software to handle requests when the pointers are exhausted. The software includes a flexible coherence interface that facilitates protocol software implementation. This interface is indispensable for conducting experiments and has proven important for implementing enhancements to the basic system. Simulations of a |
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