Conngurable Shared Virtual Memory for Parallel Computing

Most distributed-shared memory(DSM) systems use a global address space which is shared by all processing nodes. Although the global address space is convenient in providing a single address space for programming models, it is applicable to DSM systems with relatively small number of processing nodes. As the system size grows, there is a problem with scalability. To avoid this drawback, a new shared virtual memory management scheme, \CSVM (Conngurable Shared Virtual Memory)," is proposed. CSVM creates a new single address space for a given program which is shared only by the nodes cooperating for the parallel execution of the program. The new scheme, therefore, can be applied to any size of DSM system and even to heterogeneous DSM systems. We have developed two algorithms for the distribution and the management of a shared address space. These algorithms cover both the virtual memory of sequential computer and the shared virtual memory of the traditional DSM system, which means CSVM is reduced to the virtual memory management of sequential computer in executing a sequential program and to the traditional shared virtual memory in executing a parallel program. According to the analytical result, CSVM reduces the message traac of DSM system with global address very eeectively.