Abstract

Large scale multimedia storage servers will be an integral part of the emerging distributed multimedia computing infrastructure. However, given the modest rate of improvements in storage transfer rates, designing servers that meet the demands of multimedia applications is a challenging task that needs significant architectural innovation. Our research project, called Massively-parallel And Real-time Storage (mars) architecture, is aimed at the design and prototype implementation of a large scale multimedia storage server. It uses some of the well-known techniques in parallel I/O, such as data striping and Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (raid) and an innovative atm based interconnect inside the server to achieve a scalable architecture that transparently connects storage devices to an atm-based broadband network. The atm interconnect within the server uses a custom asic called ATM Port Interconnect Controller (apic) currently being developed as a part of an arpa sponsored gigabi...

Citations