Using a distributed shared memory for implementing efficient information mediators

Abstract

With the development of the INTERNET, high performance information servers are made available to clients distributed over the world. Hardware configurations for such servers are, in most of the cases, centralized, therefore costly machines that need to be replaced when the server must scale up. While a distributed hardware configuration is scalable, running a distributed information server requires adequate system support. We believe that a Distributed Shared Memory (DSM) system support is best suited to address this problem, since it provides the abstraction of a virtual shared memory multiprocessor. In order to validate this point, we consider the use of our DSM system for supporting a scalable Mediator, an information server that gives access to heterogeneous databases distributed on the INTERNET.