Proteus: An efficient runtime reconfigurable distributed shared memory system

This paper describes Proteus, a distributed shared memory (DSM) system which supports runtime node reconfiguration. Proteus allows users to change the node set during the execution of a DSM program. The capability of node addition allows users to further shorten the execution time of their DSM programs by dynamically adding newly available nodes to the system. Furthermore, competition for resources between system users and computer owners can be avoided by dynamically deleting nodes from the system. To make the system adapt to the node configuration efficiently, Proteus employs several techniques, including adaptive workload redistribution, affinity page movement, and forced update. Proteus supports both sequential consistency and release consistency. It provides an object-oriented parallel programming environment. This paper describes the design and implementation of node reconfiguration in Proteus, and presents the performance of the system. Experimental results indicate that Proteus can further improve the performance of the tested programs by taking advantage of node reconfiguration. Our results further demonstrate that the techniques employed in Proteus minimize communication and overhead.