Towards OpenMP Execution on Software Distributed Shared Memory Systems

In this paper, we examine some of the challenges present in providing support for OpenMP applications on a Software Distributed Shared Memory(DSM) based cluster system. We present detailed measurements of the performance characteristics of realistic OpenMP applications from the SPEC OMP2001 benchmarks. Based on these measurements, we discuss application and system characteristics that impede the efficient execution of these programs on a Software DSM system. We point out pitfalls of a naive translation approach from OpenMP into the API provided by a Software DSM system, and we discuss a set of possible program optimization techniques.