Laurasia and Wind: a compiler-controlled software DSM for WS/PC clusters

We have proposed an approach to build an automatic parallelizing compiler for various parallel computer architectures by providing COMA (Cache-Only Memory Architecture) environment that can be controlled by the compiler. This paper presents the design and implementation of a software DSM (Distributed Shared Memory) system named Laurasia". It also describes a Low-Costs Communication module named "Win" which is developed to accelerate the performance of Laurasia. Laurasia is designed to run on a cluster of UNIX Workstations or PCs, and Wind is built in a Linus kernel to eliminate context switches between the kernel and the user process.