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This dissertation examines shared memory reference patterns in parallel programs that run on bus-based, shared memory multiprocessors. The study reveals two distinct modes of sharing behavior. In sequential sharing, a processor makes multiple, sequential writes to the words within a block, uninterrupted by accesses from other processors. Under fine-grain sharing, processors contend for these words, and the number of per-processor sequential writes is low. Whether a program exhibits sequential or fine-grain sharing affects several factors relating to multiprocessor performance: the accuracy of sharing models that predict cache coherency overhead, the cache miss ratio and bus utilization of parallel programs, and the choice of coherency protocol. An architecture-independent model of write sharing was developed, based on the inter-processor activity to write-shared data. The model was used to predict the relative coherency overhead of write-invalidate and write-broadcast protocols. Architecturally detailed simulations validated the model for write-broadcast. Successive refinements produced acceptable predictions for write-invalidate. Block size was crucial for modeling write-invalidate, because the pattern of memory references within a block determines protocol performance. The cache and bus behavior of parallel programs running under write-invalidate protocols was evaluated over various block and cache sizes. A cross-protocol comparison provided empirical evidence of the performance loss caused by increasing block size in write-invalidate protocols and cache size in write-broadcast It then measured the extent to which read broadcast improved write-invalidate performance and competitive snooping helped write-broadcast The results indicated that read-broadcast reduced the number of invalidation misses, but at a high cost in processor lockout from the cache. The surprising net effect was an increase in total execution cycles.