S3MP’s cache coherency protocol implements strong
consistency
Many recent designs implement a weaker consistency
model…
S3MP uses a singly-linked sharing chain
Widely-shared data – long chains – long invalidations, nasty
replacements
“Widely shared data is rare”
In real life:
IEEE Scalable Coherent Interconnect (SCI): doubly-linked
sharing list
SGI Origin 2000: bit vector sharing list
Real Origin 2000 systems in service with 256 CPUs
Sun E10000: hybrid multiple buses for invalidations,
separate switched network for data transfers
Many E10000s in service, often with 64 CPUs