PRISM: An integrated architecture for scalable shared memory

Abstract

PRISM is a distributed shared memory architecture that relies on a tightly integrated hardware and operating system design for scalable and reliable performance. PRISM's hardware provides mechanisms for flexible management and dynamic configuration of shared memory pages with different behaviors. Its operating system is structured as multiple independent kernels, where each kernel manages the resources on its local node. The system structure minimizes the amount of global coordination when managing shared memory. The structure also provides natural fault containment boundaries around each node because physical addresses do not address remote memory directly.