Mether: A memory system for network multiprocessors

Memory is an attractive network abstraction for distributed computing systems. This thesis presents the following new results: (1) A high-performance implementation of a Network Shared Memory (NSM) which does not require broadcast capabilities and can be implemented in hardware. (2) A new semantics for shared memory consistency which allows effective interprocess communication (IPC) via sharing while minimizing performance degradation due to synchronization. (3) A detailed performance study of applications which have been ported from shared memory processors to NSM. The results of the research are embodied in Mether 3.0, which serves as an applications platform for such diverse tasks as a Gaussian elimination program for sparse linear systems, a DNA pattern matcher, and network IPC via pipes