September 2017

Conference Paper

UNITY: Unified Memory and File Space

By:
Jones, Terry R; Lang, Michael; Gavrilovska, Ada; Brim, Michael J; Vallee, Geoffroy R; Mayer, Benjamin W; Welch, Donald A; Li, Tonglin ; Ionkov, Latchesar; Otstott, Douglas; Eisenhauer, Greg; Doudali, Thaleia; Fernando, Pradeep
Book Title:
Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Runtime and Operating Systems for Supercomputers
Publication Date:
September 8, 2017
Publisher Location:
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), New York, New York, United States of America
Conference Name:
InternationalWorkshop on Runtime and Operating Systems fro Supercomputers (ROSS'17)
Conference Location:
Washington, Virginia, United States of America

Abstract

This paper describes the vision for UNITY, a new high-performance computing focused data storage abstraction that places the entire memory hierarchy, including both traditionally separated memoryand file-based data storage, into one storage continuum. Through the use of a novel API and a set of services centered around a smart runtime system, UNITY is able to provide a number of valuable and interesting benefits. The unified storage space provides a scalable and resilient data environment that dynamically manages the mapping of data onto available resources based on multiple factors, including desired persistence and energy budget considerations. By eliminating the need for high-performance computing domain scientists to develop architecture-dependent optimizations for rapidly evolving data storage technologies, UNITY addresses both ease-of-use and performance.