Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/R84481/01
Title:	Collecting Distributed Garbage using the DMOS Family of Algorithms: Visiting Fellowships
Principal Investigator:	Morrison, Professor R
Other Investigators:	Kirby, Dr G
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Computer Science
Organisation:	University of St Andrews
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 June 2002	Ends:	31 October 2002	Value (£):	12,505
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Networks & Distributed Systems
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Communications
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
The DMOS algorithm provides a unique combination of desirable properties for a distributed collector that avoids global tracing; specifically, DMOS is safe, complete, non-disruptive, incremental, local, independent, decentralised, and asynchronous. It thus has the prerequisites for scalability of incrementality, locality, decentralisation, and asynchrony. Our new methodology for implementing DMOS uses four steps: select or derive a distributed termination algorithm that is proven correct - the DTA should be described in terms of jobs, tasks and a condition we call (job) termination; select and prove safety, and maybe some other properties, of the centralised garbage collector; define an object reclamation mapping, from the centralised garbage collector to the distributed termination algorithm, in terms of jobs, tasks, and job termination; and prove that job termination is equivalent to the eventual reclamation of objects.Our aim is to understand, implement, and measure a family of DMOS implementations that vary in the two distributed termination algorithms and the local collector. Such variations may be targeted towards intrinsic properties such as fault tolerance, persistence, efficiency and object migration. This will allow different implementations of DMOS to be tailored to a specific environment such as a high-performance multi-computer or a loosely coupled set of distributed sites.
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Organisation Website:	http://www.st-and.ac.uk