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Workshop on wide area networks and high performance computing pp 89–108Cite as

ParaStation user level communication

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences ((LNCIS,volume 249))

Abstract

PULC (ParaStation User Level Communication) is a user-level communication library for workstation clusters. PULC provides a multi-user, multiprogramming communication library for user-level communication on top of high-speed communication hardware. This paper describes the design of the communication subsystem, a first implementation on top of the ParaStation communication adapter, and benchmark results of this first implementation.

PULC removes the operating system from the communication path and offers a multi-process environment with user-space communication. Additionally, it moves some operating system functionality to the user-level to provide higher efficiency and flexibility. Message demultiplexing, protocol processing, hardware interfacing, and mutual exclusion of critical sections are all implemented in user-level. PULC offers the programmer multiple interfaces including TCP user-level sockets, MPI [CGH94], PVM [BDG+93], and Active Messages [CCHvE96]. Throughput and latency are close to the hardware performance (e.g., the TCP socket protocol has a latency of less than 9 µs).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Programmstrukturen und Datenorganisation, Fakultät für Informatik, Universität Karlsruhe, Am Fasanengarten 5, D-76128, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Joachim M. Blum, Thomas M. Warschko & Walter F. Tichy

Authors
  1. Joachim M. Blum
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  2. Thomas M. Warschko
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  3. Walter F. Tichy
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Editor information

G. Cooperman (Professor)E. Jessen (Professor)G. Michler (Professor)

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© 1999 Springer-Verlag London Limited

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Blum, J.M., Warschko, T.M., Tichy, W.F. (1999). ParaStation user level communication. In: Cooperman, G., Jessen, E., Michler, G. (eds) Workshop on wide area networks and high performance computing. Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences, vol 249. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0110080

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0110080

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-85233-642-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-84628-578-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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