There exists a wide spectrum of coherency models for use in distributed shared memory (DSM) systems. The choice of model for an application should ideally be based on the application's data access patterns and phase changes. However, in current systems, most, if not all of the parameters of the coherency model are fixed in the underlying DSM system. This forces the application either to structure its computations to suit the underlying model or to endure an inefficient coherency model.

This paper introduces a unique approach to the provision of DSM based on the idea of compliance. Compliance allows an application to specify how the system should most effectively operate through a separation between mechanism, provided by the underlying system, and policy, pro-vided by the application. This is in direct contrast with the traditional view that an application must mold itself to the hard-wired choices that its operating platform has made. The contribution of this work is the definition and implementation of an architecture for compliant distributed coherency management. The efficacy of this architecture is illustrated through a worked example.