Parallel Computer Architecture

700 CHAPTER 9 Hardware/Software Trade-Offs

but also by the compiler, and compilers for multiprocessors are beginning to do so

(see Section 9.5). Beneath a relaxed model at the programmer's interface, the hard-

ware interface can use the same or stronger ordering model, as we saw in the context

of synchronized programs. However, significant motivation exists to use relaxed

models even at the processor interface in this case to realize the performance poten-

tial.

As we move now to discussing alternative approaches to supporting a shared

address space with coherent replication of data, we see that relaxed consistency

models can be critical to performanc ...