: Normally the SISCI interface provides a Distributed Shared Memory (DSM) abstraction using the Scalable Coherent Interface (SCI). This paper describes and discusses the design and the concepts behind a library called VIA2SISCI that we have developed. The library maps the semantics of the Virtual Interface Architecture (VIA) to SISCI–semantics and establishes a middleware between SISCI and high– level communication facilities. We focus on several important concepts of VIA that had to be mapped to the SISCI services. The presented concepts may be interesting and useful beyond the scope of this paper.