Shared Address Space Architectures
Any processor can directly reference any memory location
- Communication occurs implicitly as result of loads and stores
Convenient:
- existing programs run out of the box ….
- Similar programming model to time-sharing on uniprocessors
- Except processes run on different processors
- Good throughput on multiprogrammed workloads
Naturally provided on wide range of platforms
- History dates at least to precursors of mainframes in early 60s
- Wide range of scale: few to hundreds of processors
Popularly known as shared memory machines or model
- This term ambiguous: memory may be physically distributed among processors