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A suite of definitions for consistency criteria in distributed shared memories

un ensemble hiérarchique de définitions pour les critères de cohérence dans les mémoires distribuées partagées

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Abstract

A shared memory built on top of a distributed system constitutes a distributed shared memory (DSM). If a lot of protocols implementing DSMS in various contexts have been proposed, no set of homogeneous definitions has been given for the many semantics offered by these implementations. This paper provides a suite of such definitions for atomic, sequential, causal, PRAM and a few others consistency criteria. These definitions are based on a unique framework : a parallel computation is defined as a partial order on the set of read and write operations invoked by processes, and a consistency criterion is defined as a constraint on this partial order. Such an approach provides a simple classification of consistency criteria, from the more to the less constrained one. This paper can also be considered as a survey on consistency criteria for DSMS.

Résumé

Cet article présente un ensemble de critères de cohérence pour les données accédées par des processus concurrents. La cohérence atomique, la cohérence séquentielle et la cohérence causale sont plus particulièrement étudiées. Grâce à I’utilisation d’un forma-lisme unique (fondé sur la théorie des ordres partiels) pour définir ces divers critères, on montre que ceux-ci s ’imbriquent naturellement les uns dans les autres. Des protocoles implémentant ces divers critères sont également cités. Cet article peut être vu comme un survey de critères de cohérence. L’originalité de I’approche cons is te à les présenter dans unformalisme unique. Ceci permet de mieux comprendre et apprécier les points oú se situent lews similitudes et leurs différences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRISA, Campus de Beaulieu, F-35042, Rennes Cedex, France

    Michel Raynal

  2. Dept d’lnformatique, EPFL, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    André Schiper

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  1. Michel Raynal
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  2. André Schiper
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Correspondence to Michel Raynal or André Schiper.

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Raynal, M., Schiper, A. A suite of definitions for consistency criteria in distributed shared memories. Ann. Télécommun. 52, 652–661 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02997620

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