ConCORD: Easily Exploiting Memory Content Redundancy through the Content-Aware Service Command

HPDC '14

Abstract

We argue that memory content-tracking across the nodes of a parallel machine should be factored into a distinct platform service on top of which application services can be built. ConCORD is a proof-of-concept system that we have developed and evaluated to test this claim. Our core insight is that many application services can be described as a query over memory content. This insight leads to a core concept in ConCORD, the content-aware service command architecture, in which an application service is implemented as a parametrization of a single general query that ConCORD knows how to execute well. ConCORD dynamically adapts the execution of the query to the amount of redundancy available and other factors. We show that a complex application service (collective checkpointing) can be implemented in only hundreds of lines of code within ConCORD, while performing well.