Toward a comprehensive software based DSM system

Software based Distributed Shared Memory (DSM) systems have been the focus of considerable research effort, primarily in improving performance and consistency protocols. Unfortunately, computer clusters present a number of challenges for any DSM systems that are not solvable through consistency protocols alone. These challenges relate to the ability of DSM systems to adjust to load fluctuations, computers being added/removed from the cluster, to deal with faults, and the ability to use DSM objects larger than the available physical memory. We present here a proposal for the Synergy Distributed Shared Memory System and its integration with the virtual memory, group communication and process migration services of the Genesis Cluster Operating System.