A survey of distributed shared memory systems

Distributed shared memoy (DSM) systems have attracted considembie research efforts recently, since they combine the advantages of two different computer classes: shared memory multiprocessors and distn’buted systems. The most important one is the use of shared memory programming pamdigm on physically distributed memon.es. In the first part of this paper, one possible classiJication taxonomy, which includes two basic cn’teria and a number of related characteristic, is proposed and described. According to the basic classification criteria-implementation level of DSM mechanism--systems are organized into three groups: hardware, software, and hybrid DSM implementations. The second part of the paper represents an almost exhaustive survey of the existing solutions in an uniform manner, presenting their DSM mechanisms and issues of importance for van.ous DSM systems and approaches.