An analysis of Memnet—an experiment in high-speed shared-memory local networking

Abstract

Memnet is a shared-memory local area network under development at the University of Delaware that provides close coupling to the processors of a physically distributed multiprocessor system. The Memnet local network appears as memory in the physical address space of each processor (host) on the network. This paper describes an analysis of the Memnet system performed to predict the possible performance levels attainable by a Memnet system. One objective of this analysis is to provide analytic results demonstrating the intrinsic soundness of the Memnet architecture. This is in support of the intuitive arguments of the shared-memory network model over the I/O modeled local network schemes. Another function of this analysis has been to provide design feedback for the choice of values for parameters such as page size. The analysis results indicate that the Memnet approach to networking should significantly speed communication compared to alternative networking schemes. Due to space limitations, the details of the analysis have not been included. The full text is available as TR-88-6-1 from: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark DE, 19716.