The DIMSUM laboratory provides a controlled environment for conducting performance experiments for distributed database work. There are two main testbeds in the lab. Each of these testbeds runs on its own high-speed network, which can be isolated from the general department network in order to run performance tests.
The first testbed, used primarily for DIMSUM prototype and simulation work, consists of a group of six IBM RS/6000 42T workstations (PowerPC 604), connected by a dual-ring FDDI network (100 Mb/sec). The server, named `dimsum', has 128 MB of main memory and 4.2GB of disk space. The other five machines (`bao', `chickenfeet', `lobakgo', `siumei', and `stickyrice') act as clients, and have 64MB memory and 1.1 GB of disk each. The RS/6000s are running AIX and a modified version of the SHORE distributed object manager.
The second testbed currently consists of four Intel Pentium-based machines: Three 200 MHz machines with 64 MB main memory and 6.4 GB of disk, and a 133 MHz server with 64MB main memory and 4 GB of disk (but room for lots more). These machines are all running Windows NT and are connected on two isolated networks: a 100 Mbit/sec Ethernet network used as a multicast downlink, and a 10 Mbit/sec Ethernet used as a client-to-server uplink. This testbed is primarily used for running the data broadcast prototype.
The equipment for the DIMSUM lab has been provided by IBM, through the SUR (Shared University Research) program, and by Intel, through the Intel Architecture Lab's academic relations program. Additional software has been provided by Microsoft. The lab space and systems support has been generously provided by UMIACS.
The DIMSUM Lab is co-resident with the Mobile Computing and Multimedia Lab.
| Last updated Oct. 30, 1997. | DIMSUM Home Page | franklin@cs.umd.edu |