Global pointers for scalable parallel applications

摘要

Mapping of cacheable memory pages from other processes in a parallel job provides a very efficient mechanism for inter-process communication. A trivial address computation can then be used to look up a virtual address that allows the use of cacheable loads and stores to directly access or update the memory of other processes in the job for communication purposes. When an interconnection network permits the cacheable access of one host's memory from another host in the cluster, kernel and library software can map memory from processes on other hosts, in addition to the memory on the same host. This mapping can be done at the start of a parallel job using a system library interface. A function in an application programming interface provides a user-level, fast lookup of a virtual address that references data regions residing on all of the processes in a parallel job running across multiple hosts.