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NWCache: Optimizing disk accesses via an optical network/write cache hybrid

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Parallel and Distributed Processing (IPPS 1999)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1586))

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Abstract

In this paper we propose a simple extension to the I/O architecture of scalable multiprocessors that optimizes page swap-outs significantly. More specifically, we propose the use of an optical ring network for I/O operations that not only transfers swapped-out pages between the local memories and the disks, but also acts as a system-wide write cache. In order to evaluate our proposal, we use detailed execution-driven simulations of several out-of-core parallel applications running on an 8-node scalable multiprocessor. Our results demonstrate that the NWCache provides consistent performance improvements, coming mostly from faster page swap-outs, victim caching, and reduced contention. Based on these results, our main conclusion is that the NWCache is highly efficient for most out-of-core parallel applications.

This research was supported by Brazilian CNPq.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. COPPE Systems Engineering, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 21945-970, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Enrique V. Carrera & Ricardo Bianchini

Authors
  1. Enrique V. Carrera
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  2. Ricardo Bianchini
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Editor information

José Rolim Frank Mueller Albert Y. Zomaya Fikret Ercal Stephan Olariu Binoy Ravindran Jan Gustafsson Hiroaki Takada Ron Olsson Laxmikant V. Kale Pete Beckman Matthew Haines Hossam ElGindy Denis Caromel Serge Chaumette Geoffrey Fox Yi Pan Keqin Li Tao Yang G. Chiola G. Conte L. V. Mancini Domenique Méry Beverly Sanders Devesh Bhatt Viktor Prasanna

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© 1999 Springer-Verlag

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Carrera, E.V., Bianchini, R. (1999). NWCache: Optimizing disk accesses via an optical network/write cache hybrid. In: Rolim, J., et al. Parallel and Distributed Processing. IPPS 1999. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1586. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg . https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0097971

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0097971

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65831-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48932-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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