Data block size, software access control and release consistent DSM on reliable networks

This paper analyzes the effect of data block size on RUDSM, a release consistent (RC) update-based DSM system that supports write-sharing and implements access control mechanism in software. Our results show that write-sharing only removes the ping-ponging of data blocks but increases the coherence related overhead for medium-and-fine grain applications. For applications with fine-and-varying computation granularity, a small data block reduces the remote access latency and the coherence related overhead, and needs a significantly less network bandwidth. Update based systems have high protocol processing overhead and incur high communication cost to maintain the state information of cached data blocks.