Distributed communication via global buffer

Design and implementation of an inter-address-space communication mechanism for the SBN network computer are described. SBN's basic communication primitives appear in context of a new distributed systems programming language strongly supported by the network communication kernel. A model in which all communication takes place via a distributed global buffer results in simplicity, generality and power in the communication primitives. Implementation issues raised by the requirements of the global buffer model are discussed in context of the SBN impementation effort.