Distributed shared memory
[1]: 201 Distributed global address space (DGAS), is a similar term for a wide class of software and hardware implementations, in which each node of a cluster has access to shared memory in addition to each node's private (i.e., not shared) memory.
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A distributed-memory system, often called a multicomputer, consists of multiple independent processing nodes with local memory modules which is connected by a general interconnection network.
In contrast, software DSM systems implemented at the library or language level are not transparent and developers usually have to program them differently.
Hardware examples include cache coherence circuits and network interface controllers.
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Software DSM systems also have the flexibility to organize the shared memory region in different ways.
In a home-centric system, the DSM will avoid having to handle request-response races between nodes by allowing only one transaction to occur at a time until the home node has decided that the transaction is finished—usually when the home has received every responding processor's response to the request.
[3] The advantages of this approach are that it's simple to implement but its request-response strategy is slow and buffered due to the home node's limitations.
This means that multiple nodes can attempt to start a transaction, but this requires additional considerations to ensure coherence.
