Chunk: A Framework for Modular Distributed Shared Memory Systems

We present Chunk, a framework for building modular distributed shared memory systems for UNIX. Chunk allows applications that are designed to share local memory through the UNIX memory mapped file mechanism (mmap) to be able to share memory across different physical hosts without modifications. Chunk’s modular architecture enables the use of a variety of memory-sharing policies. We present a DSM system implemented using the Chunk framework and evaluate its performance. We demonstrate the viability of our framework for real-world applications by presenting experiments with Berkeley DB.