InterWeave: A Middleware System for Distributed Shared State

Abstract. As an alternative to message passing, Rochester's InterWeave system allows the programmer to map shared segments into programs spread across heterogeneous, distributed machines. InterWeave represents a merger and extension of our previous Cashmere and InterAct projects, combining hardware coherence within small multiprocessors, Cashmere-style lazy release consistency within tightly coupled clusters, and InterAct-style version-based consistency for distributed shared segments. In InterWeave, each shared segment evolves through a series of consistent versions. When beginning a read-only critical section on a given segment, InterWeave uses a programmer-specified predicate to determine whether the currently cached version, if any, is "recent enough" to use. Inter-segment consistency is maintained by means of hashed vector timestamps. Automatic data conversions allow each program to employ its own natural data format, byte order, and alignment, with full support for...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2000
• Where: LCR
• Authors: DeQing Chen, Sandhya Dwarkadas, Srinivasan Parthasarathy, Eduardo Pinheiro, Michael L. Scott
• Keywords: InterAct-style Version-based Consistency, Lazy Release Consistency, LCR 2000, Segment Evolves, System Software