Experience with a Language for Writing Coherence Protocols

In this paper we describe our experience with Teapot [7], a domain-specific language for writing cache coherence protocols. Cache coherence is of concern when parallel and distributed computing systems make local replicas of shared data to improve scalability and performance. In both distributed shared memory systems and distributed file systems, a coherence protocol maintains agreement among the replicated copies as the underlying data are modified by programs running on the system. Cache coherence protocols are notoriously difficult to implement, debug, and maintain. Unfortunately, protocols are not off-the-shelf items, as their details depend on the requirements of the system under consideration. This paper presents case studies detailing the successes and shortcomings of using Teapot for writing coherence protocols in two systems. The first system, loosely coherent memory (LCM) [16], implements a particular type of distributed shared memory suitable for dataparallel programmin...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1997
• Where: DSL
• Authors: Satish Chandra, James R. Larus, Michael Dahlin, Brad Richards, Randolph Y. Wang, Thomas E. Anderson
• Keywords: Cache Coherence Protocols, Coherence Protocols, DSL 1997, Programming Languages, Teapot