BIB-VERSION:: CS-TR-v2.0 ID:: ncstrl.dartmouthcs//TR93-188 ENTRY:: January 20, 1995 ORGANIZATION:: Dartmouth College, Computer Science TITLE:: Integrating Theory and Practice in Parallel File Systems TYPE:: Technical Report (paper) REVISION:: 3 AUTHOR:: Cormen, Thomas H. AUTHOR:: Kotz, David NOTE:: The 'January' in DATE is an arbitrary placeholder. DATE:: January 1993 RETRIEVAL:: For a paper copy, email RETRIEVAL:: For a paper copy, write to Technical Report Librarian Department of Computer Science Dartmouth College 6211 Sudikoff Laboratory Hanover, NH 03755-3510 USA RETRIEVAL:: Compressed Postscript at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/TR93-188-update.ps.Z RETRIEVAL:: PDF at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/TR93-188-update.pdf ABSTRACT:: Several algorithms for parallel disk systems have appeared in the literature recently, and they are asymptotically optimal in terms of the number of disk accesses. Scalable systems with parallel disks must be able to run these algorithms. We present a list of capabilities that must be provided by the system to support these optimal algorithms: control over declustering, querying about the configuration, independent I/O, turning off file caching and prefetching, and bypassing parity. We summarize recent theoretical and empirical work that justifies the need for these capabilities. NOTE:: Revised 9/20/94. NOTE:: The original 1993 tech report was superceded by the conference version. The paper has since been revised, re-issued on 9/20/94 as an updated technical report. END:: ncstrl.dartmouthcs//TR93-188