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A distributed implementation of a virtual machine for Java
Author(s) -
Aridor Yariv,
Factor Michael,
Teperman Avi
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
concurrency and computation: practice and experience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.309
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1532-0634
pISSN - 1532-0626
DOI - 10.1002/cpe.565
Subject(s) - computer science , java , strictfp , myrinet , operating system , scalability , virtual machine , real time java , java annotation , java concurrency , java applet , computer cluster , speedup , object (grammar) , parallel computing , message passing , artificial intelligence
The cluster virtual machine (VM) for Java provides a single system image of a traditional Java Virtual Machine (JVM) while executing in a distributed fashion on the nodes of a cluster. The cluster VM for Java virtualizes the cluster, supporting any pure Java application without requiring that application be tailored specifically for it. The aim of our cluster VM is to obtain improved scalability for a class of Java Server Applications by distributing the application's work among the cluster's computing resources. The implementation of the cluster VM for Java is based on a novel object model which distinguishes between an application's view of an object (e.g. every object is a unique data structure) and its implementation (e.g. objects may have consistent replications on different nodes). This enables us to exploit knowledge on the use of individual objects to improve performance (e.g. using object replications to increase locality of access to objects). We have already completed a prototype that runs pure Java applications on a cluster of NT workstations connected by a Myrinet fast switch. The prototype provides a single system image to applications, distributing the application's threads and objects over the cluster. We used the cluster VM to run, without change, a real Java Server Application containing over 10 Kloc 1 Kloc means Kilo lines of code—used to describe the size of applications in terms of source lines count. for the source code and achieved high scalability for it on a cluster. We also achieved linear speedup for another application with a large number of independent threads. This paper discusses the architecture and implementation of the cluster VM. It focuses on achieving a single system image for a traditional JVM on a cluster while describing, in short, how we aim to obtain scalability. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.