Distributed Shared Memory : Concepts and Systems

The papers present in this text survey both distributed shared memory (DSM) efforts and commercial DSM systems. The book discusses relevant issues that make the concept of DSM one of the most attractive approaches for building large-scale, high-performance multiprocessor systems. The authors provide a general introduction to the DSM field as well as a broad survey of the basic DSM concepts, mechanisms, design issues, and systems.

The book concentrates on basic DSM algorithms, their enhancements, and their performance evaluation. In addition, it details implementations that employ DSM solutions at the software and the hardware level. This guide is a research and development reference that provides state-of-the art information that will be useful to architects, designers, and programmers of DSM systems.

Jelica Protic is currently with the department of computer engineering, School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslaviqa, where she received her BS and MS in computer engineering in 1987 and 1994, respectively. From 1987 to 1990 she was with the LOLA Institute, where she has been involved in a project of networking programmable logical controllers using a DSM-like paradigm. Shared-memory multiprocessors, distributed computing, local area networks, and system software in general are her current research interests. Distributed shared memory is her primary field of interest; together with the same coauthors she presented several preconference tutorials on this subject, and she is currently in the final phase of finishing her PhD thesis in this field. (Protic's home page: hhtp://ubbg.etf.bg.ac.yu/~jeca/)

Milo Tomasevic is currently with the department of computer engineering, School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia. He received his BS in electrical engineering, and MS and PhD in computer engineering, from the University of Belgrade, in 1980, 1984, and 1992, respectively. Previously he was with the Pupin Institute, Belgrade, where he was involved in several large research projects. His PhD research dealt with the Cache coherence problem in shared-memory multiprocessors. His current research interests cover computer architecture, especially parallel and distributed systems. He has received awards for some of his conference papers. (Tomasevic's home page: http://ubbg.etf.bg.ac.yu/~etomasev/)

Veljko Milutinovic (Senior Member, IEEE) received the PhD. Degree from the University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1982. He has been on the faculty of the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia since 1990. Prior to that, he was a faculty member of the School of Electrical Engineering at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. His R&D results include a commercial 16-node MISD machine for DFT processing developed at IMP, the architecture of an early 200-MHz RISC microprocessor for RCA, several multimedia PC-oriented multiprocessor concept for NCR, and several DSM system-level solutions for Encore. He has been actively researching distributed shared memory computing since the early 1990s, when he was a part of the team that developed a board that turns a personal computer into a DSM node based on the reflective memory approach. He has authored more than 50 papers in IEEE periodicals and presented more than 200 invited lectures worldwide. His work has been extensively referenced in textbooks on computer architectures. (Milutinovic's home page: http://ubbg.etf.bg.ac.yu/~emilutiv/)