A simple and effective Software Distributed Shared Memory System

Abstract

The efficiency and performance of a Software Distributed Shared Memory (SDSM) system relies on a memory consistency model and a suitable protocol for implementing that system. In this paper, design of a page-based software distributed shared memory system is proposed for cluster of workstations and it uses migrating-home protocol (MHP) and scope consistency (ScC). In the former migrating home protocols, forwarding request for searching home to recover the page fault results in increasing overheads and broadcast mechanism for migration notices of home also causes network traffic increased. The main contribution of this paper is to combine the forwarding approach with broadcast one in migrating home protocol in order to reduce communication overhead and network traffic in accessing pages. This model is simple but can reduce the network traffic to less than half occurred in broadcast approach and obviously reduce overheads of forwarding approach in software DSM system.