BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

An early implementation of multicomputer systems used a shared memory wherein each endpoint had access to the same physical memory. A shared memory serving more than a few endpoints becomes both very expensive and highly inefficient. Today's multicomputer systems are based on collections of individual servers or endpoints, each with its own complement of memory, effectively rendering the use of shared memory ineffective in systems supporting of many endpoints. The management of a distributed, mirrored memory then becomes one of maintaining identical copies of local memory across the entire cooperating group (which may include all of the endpoints) and granting access in a manner to maintain system-wide memory consistency and coherency. Consistency requires a method to ensure that read access by any group member at any time returns the same result. Such coordination usually requires a mechanism of semaphores and locks to prevent access to local copies until such time that the entire set of mirrored copies is guaranteed to be consistent.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

There is a need for the following embodiments of the present disclosure. Of course, the present disclosure is not limited to these embodiments.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a method comprises operating a data distribution system including initializing a memory-management system that is coherent across a plurality of memory regions; and accessing an absolute address of each of the plurality of memory regions by a same offset. According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, an apparatus comprises: a data distribution system including a data distribution module and at least two host-bus adapters coupled to the data distribution module, wherein the data distribution system includes a memory-management system including a plurality of memory regions, wherein the memory-management system is coherent across the plurality of memory regions and wherein an absolute address of each of the plurality of memory regions accessed by a same offset.

These, and other, embodiments of the present disclosure will be better appreciated and understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the following description, while indicating various embodiments of the present disclosure and numerous specific details thereof, is given for the purpose of illustration and does not imply limitation. Many substitutions, modifications, additions and/or rearrangements may be made within the scope of embodiments of the present disclosure, and embodiments of the present disclosure include all such substitutions, modifications, additions and/or rearrangements.

