Exploiting Mapped Files for Parallel I/O

Abstract

Harnessing the full I/O capabilities of a large-scale multiprocessor is difficult and requires a great deal of cooperation between the application programmer, the compiler and the operating (/file) system. Hence, the parallel I/O interface used by the application to communicate with the system is crucial in achieving good performance. We present a set of properties we believe that a good I/O interface should have and consider current parallel I/O interfaces from the perspective of these properties. We describe the advantages and disadvantages of mapped-file I/O and argue that if properly implemented it can be a good basis for a parallel I/O interface that can fulfill the suggested properties. To demonstrate that such an implementation is feasible, we describe methodology used in our previous work on the Hurricane operating system and in our current work on the Tornado operating system to implement mapped files. 1 Introduction Harnessing the full I/O capabilities of a large-scale share..