DEX: Scaling Applications Beyond Machine Boundaries

Increasing the computing performance within a
single-machine form factor is becoming increasingly difficult
due to the complexities in scaling processor interconnects and
coherence protocols. On the other hand, converting existing applications
to run on multiple nodes requires a significant effort
to rewrite application logic in distributed programming models
and adapt the code to the underlying network characteristics.
This paper presents DEX, an operating system-level approach
to extend the execution boundary of existing applications
over multiple machines. DEX allows the threads in a
process to be relocated and distributed dynamically through
a simple function call. DEX makes it trivial for developers to
convert any application to be distributed over multiple nodes
and for applications to transparently utilize disaggregated resources
in a rack-scale system with minimal effort. Evaluation
results using a running prototype and eight real applications
showed promising results – six out of the eight scaled beyond
the single-machine performance on DEX.