International Business Machines Corporation

Beng-Hong Lim

Pratap Chandra Pattnaik

Kattamuri Ekanadham

Joefon Jann

Sandra Johnson Baylor

Marc Snir

A method of providing coherent shared memory access among a plurality of shared memory multiprocessor nodes. For each line of data in each of the nodes, a list of those processors of the node that have copies of the line in their caches is maintained. If a memory command is issued from a processor of one node, and if the command is directed to a line of memory of another node, then the memory command is sent directly to an adapter of the one node. When the adapter receives the command, it forwards the command from the one adapter to another adapter of the other node. When the other adapter receives the command, the command is forwarded to the local memory of the other node. The list of processors is then updated in the local memory of the other node to include or exclude the other adapter depending on the command. If the memory command is issued from one of the processors of one of the nodes, and if the command is directed to a line of memory of the one node, then the command is sent directly to local memory. When the local memory receives the command and if the adapter of the node is in the list of processors for a line associated with the command and if the command is a write command, then the command is forwarded to the adapter of the one node. When the adapter receives the command, the command is forwarded to remote adapters in each of the remote nodes which have processors which have cache copies of the line. Finally, when the latter remote adapters receive the command, the command is forwarded to the processors having the cache copies of the line.

Method of maintaining data coherency in a computer system having a

A mechanism to dynamically migrate a home node of a global page to a more suitable node for improving performance of parallel applications running on a S-COMA and other DSM systems. More specifically, consultation counts are maintained at each client node of a shared memory system, where the consultation count indicates the number of times the client node has consulted the dynamic for lines a page. This information is then used along with other information to decide on whether to change the dynamic home node to a more suitable node.

Home node migration for distributed shared memory systems

A method and apparatus for maintaining cache coherence in a shared memory multiprocessor system, where cache coherence is preserved between lock acquires and releases rather than at every single memory load and store. With this invention, a Global Lock Manager (GLM) keeps track of the status of locked ranges without the need to maintain a list of individual processors in the system. Further a Recently Acquired Lock Manager (RALM) keeps track of the status of locked ranges within a processing node to reduce the need to communicate with a GLM.

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White Plains, NY, United States of America

Beng-Hong Lim