Introduction to Multiprocessor I/o Architecture

The computational performance of multiprocessors continues to improve by leaps and bounds fueled in part by rapid improvements in processor and interconnection technology I O performance thus becomes ever more critical to avoid becoming the bottleneck of system performance In this paper we provide an introduction to I O architectural issues in multiprocessors with a focus on disk subsystems While we discuss examples from actual architectures and provide pointers to interesting research in the literature we do not attempt to provide a comprehensive survey We concentrate on a study of the architectural design issues and the e ects of di erent design alternatives