@Article{Hellwagner1993, author = {Hellwagner, Hermann}, journal = {The Computer Journal - Parallel Processing}, title = {Design Considerations for Scalable Parallel File Systems}, year = {1993}, month = {jan}, number = {8}, pages = {741-755}, volume = {Vol. 36}, abstract = {This paper addresses the problem of providing high-performance disk I/O in massively parallel computers. Resolving the fundamental I/O bottleneck in parallel architectures involves both hardware and software issues. We review previous work on disk arrays and I/O architectures aimed at providing highly parallel disk I/O subsystems. We then focus on the requirements and design of parallel file systems (PFSs) which are responsible to make the parallelism offered by the hardware and a declustered file organization available to application programs. We present the design strategy and key concepts of a general-purpose file system for a parallel computer with scalable distributed shared memory. The principal objectives of the PFS are to fully exploit the parallelism inherent among and within file accesses, and to provide scalable I/O performance. The machine model underlying the design is described, with and emphasis on the innovative architectural features supporting scalability of the shared memory. Starting from a classification of various scenarios of concurrent I/O requests, the features of the PFS design essential for achieving the goals are described and justified. It is argued that the inter- and intra-request parallelism of the I/O load can indeed be effectively exploited and supported by the parallel system resources. Scalability of I/O performance and of the PFS software can be ensured by avoiding serial bottlenecks through the use of the powerful architectural features.}, address = {N, A}, language = {EN}, pdf = {https://www.itec.aau.at/bib/files/741.full.pdf}, publisher = {N, A} }