Wide-address spaces: exploring the design space

{In a recent issue of Operating System Review, Hayter and McAuley [1991] argue that future high-performance systems trade a traditional, bus-based organization for one where all components are linked together by network switches (the Desk-Area Network). In this issue of Operating System Review, Leslie, McAuley and Mullender conclude that DAN-based architectures allow the exploitation of shared memory on a wider scale than just a single (multi)processor. In this paper, we will explore how emerging 64-bit processors can be used to implement shared address spaces spanning multiple machines.