The Remote Enqueue Operation on Networks of Workstations

Abstract. Modern networks of workstations connected by Gigabit networks have the ability to run high-performance computing applications at a reasonable performance, but at a signi cantly lower cost. The performance of these applications is usually dominated by their e ciency of the underlying communication mechanisms. However, e cient communication requires that not only messages themselves are sent fast, but also noti cation about message arrival should be fast as well. For example, a message that has arrived at its destination is worthless until the recipient is alerted to the message arrival. In this paper we describe a new operation, the remote-enqueue atomic operation, which can be used in multiprocessors, and workstation clusters. This operation atomically inserts a data element in a queue that physically resides in a remote processor's memory. This operation can be used for fast noti cation of message arrival, and for fast passing of small messages. Compared to other softwa...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: CANPC
• Authors: Evangelos P. Markatos, Manolis Katevenis, Penny Vatsolaki
• Keywords: CANPC 1998, Communications, Fast Noti Cation, Message Arrival, Noti Cation