Software DSM protocols that adapt between single writer and multiple writer

We present two software DSM protocols that dynamically adapt between a single writer (SW) and a multiple writer (MW) protocol based on the application's sharing patterns. The first protocol (WFS) adapts based on write-write false sharing; the second (WFS+WG) based on a combination of write-write false sharing and write granularity. The adaptation is automatic. No user or compiler information is needed. The choice between SW and MW is made on a per-page basis. We measured the performance of our adaptive protocols on an 8-node SPARC cluster connected by a 155 Mbps ATM network. We used eight applications, covering a broad spectrum in terms of write-write false sharing and write granularity. We compare our adaptive protocols against the MW-only and the SW-only approach. Adaptation to write-write false sharing proves to be the critical performance factor, while adaptation to write granularity plays only a secondary role in our environment and for the applications considered. Each of the two adaptive protocols matches or exceeds the performance of the best of MW and SW in seven out of the eight applications.