ELFS: Object-Oriented Extensible File Systems

High performance scientific data analysis is plagued by chronically inadequate I/O performance. The situation is aggravated by ever improving processor performance. For high performance multicomputers, such as the Touchstone Delta that possess in excess of 500, 60 megaflops, processor I/O will be the bottleneck for many scientific applications. This report describes ELFS (an ExtensibLe File System). ELFS attacks the problems of 1) providing high bandwidth and low latency I/O to applications programs on high performance architectures, 2) reducing the cognitive burden faced by applications programmers when they attempt to optimize their I/O operations to fit existing file system models, and 3) seamlessly managing the proliferation of data formats and architectural differences. The ELFS solution consists of language and run-time system support that permits the specification of a hierarchy of file classes.