The virtual time machine

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Abstract
A parallel computer architecture is proposed that is based on an optimistic style of execution. Specifically, the Virtual Time Machine (VTM) detects violations of data depen- dence constraints at runtime, and automatically recovers from them. In order to efficiently implement this mecha- nism, a sophisticated, two-dimensional memory system is proposed that is addressed using both a spatial and a tern. poral coordinate. Initially targeted for discrete event sim- ulation applications, the long term goal of this work is to develop a generaJ purpose parallel computer that will sup- port a wide range of parallel programming paradigms. This paper outlines the motivations behind the VTM ar- chitecture, the underlying computation model, a proposed implementation, and initial performance results. A recur- ring theme that pervades the entire paper is our contention that existing shared memory and message-base machines do not pay adequate attention to the dimension of time.

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