Definition
PGAS (Partitioned Global Address Space) is a programming model suited for shared and distributed memory parallel machines, e.g., machines consisting of many (up to hundreds of thousands of) CPUs.
Shared memory in this context means that the total of the memory space is available to every processor in the system (although access time to different banks of this memory can be different on each processor). Distributed memory is scattered across processors; access to other processors’ memory is usually through a network.
A PGAS system, therefore, consists of the following components:
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A set of processors, each with attached local storage. Parts of this local storage can be declared private by the programming model, and is not visible to other processors.
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A mechanism by which at least a part of each processor’s storage can be sharedwith others. Sharing can be implemented through the network device with system software support, or through hardware shared memory with cache...
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Almasi, G. (2011). PGAS (Partitioned Global Address Space) Languages. In: Padua, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Parallel Computing. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09766-4_210
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