This project is building a high-performance distributed storage system using communication switches and workstations. Data to be stored will be distributed across the workstations and will be retrieved using the communication network between the workstations. Research issues to be addressed include identification of hardware and software bottlenecks, limits to system scaling, scheduling of multimedia I/O in a distributed system, and the implications of I/O on switch architecture. Education is a part of this project; plans include a graduate course on I/O systems, an undergraduate laboratory in computer architecture, and use of the machine developed during the research as a testbed for the graduate course.
