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Performance of Cache Coherence in Stackable Filing

John Heidemann and Gerald Popek
University of California, Los Angeles

Abstract

Stackable design of filing systems constructs sophisticated services from multiple, independently developed layers. This approach has been advocated to address development problems from code re-use, to extensibility, to version management.

Individual layers of such a system often need to cache data to improve performance or provide desired functionality. When access to different layers is allowed, cache incoherencies can occur. Without a cache coherence solution, layer designers must either restrict layer access and flexibility or compromise the layered structure to avoid potential data corruption. The value of modular designs such as stacking can be questioned without a suitable solution to this problem.

This paper presents a general cache coherence architecture for stackable filing, including a standard approach to data identification as a key component to layered coherence protocols. We also present a detailed performance analysis of one implementation of stack cache-coherence, which suggests that very low overheads can be achieved in practice.

Availability

This paper is available in several formats: abstract web page with pointers and cites, gzip'ed postscript, PDF, paper copies can be obtained by mail to the authors. Copyright terms for this paper appear below.

Reference

Heidemann95c: John Heidemann and Gerald Popek. Performance of Cache Coherence in Stackable Filing. In Proceedings of the 15th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, pp. 110-127. University of California, Los Angeles, ACM. December, 1995. <http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Heidemann95c.html>.

@incollection{Heidemann95c,
	author = "John Heidemann and Gerald Popek",
	title = "Performance of Cache Coherence in Stackable Filing",
	booktitle = "Proceedings of the 15th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles",
	publisher = "{ACM}",
	year = "1995",
	month = "December",
	pages = "110--127",
	keywords = "stacking, i405, cache coherence",
	url = "http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Heidemann95c.html",
	psurl = "http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Heidemann95c.ps.gz",
	pdfurl = "http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Heidemann95c.pdf",
	organization = "University of California, Los Angeles",
	copyrightholder = "{ACM}",
}

Copyright

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