Multiprocessor File System Interfaces

Increasingly le systems for multiprocessors are de signed with parallel access to multiple disks to keep I O from becoming a serious bottleneck for parallel ap plications Although le system software can trans parently provide high performance access to parallel disks a new le system interface is needed to facili tate parallel access to a le from a parallel application We describe the di culties faced when using the con ventional Unix like interface in parallel applications and then outline ways to extend the conventional inter face to provide convenient access to the le for paral lel programs while retaining the traditional interface for programs that have no need for explicitly paral lel le access Our interface includes a single naming scheme a multiopen operation local and global le pointers mapped le pointers logical records multi les and logical coercion for backward compatibility