ASURA is a large scale, cluster-based, distributed shared memory, multiprocessor being developed at Kyoty University and Kubota Corporation. Up to 128 clusters are interconnected to form an ASURA system of up to 1024 processors. The basic concept of the ASURA design is to take advantage of the hierrarchical structure of the system. Implmenting theis concepts, a large shared cache is placed between each cluster and the inter-cluster network. The shared cache and the shared memories distributed among the clusters form part of ASURA's hierachical memory architecture. providing various unique