TreadMarks: Distributed Shared Memory on Standard Workstations and Operating Systems

TreadMarks is a distributed shared memory DSM system for standard Unix systems such as SunOS and Ultrix. This paper presents a performance evaluation of TreadMarks running on Ultrix using DECstation-5000 240's that are connected by a 100-Mbps switch-based ATM LAN and a 10-Mbps Ethernet. Our objective is to determine the e ciency of a user-level DSM implementation on commercially available workstations and operating systems. We achieved good speedups on the 8-processor ATM network for Jacobi 7.4, TSP 7.2, Quicksort 6.3,andILINK 5.7. Fora slightlymodi edversion of Water fromthe SPLASH benchmark suite, we achieved only moderate speedups 4.0 due to the high communication and synchronization rate. Speedups decline on the 10-Mbps Ethernet 5.5 for Jacobi, 6.5 for TSP, 4.2 for Quicksort, 5.1 for ILINK, and 2.1 for Water, re ecting the bandwidth limitations of the Ethernet. These results support the contention that, with suitable networking technology, DSM is a viable technique for parall...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1994
• Where: USENIX
• Authors: Peter J. Keleher, Alan L. Cox, Sandhya Dwarkadas, Willy Zwaenepoel
• Keywords: Communication Overhead, Operating System, TreadMarks, Unix Communication Overhead, USENIX 1994