RIA: Cost-effective Parallel Computing Platforms Based on SCI-connected Distributed Systems

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

9410063 Li This proposal research is to study the system architectural model and system software support of network of personal workstations (NPW) connected by SCI (Scalable Coherence Interface, IEEE Standard 1596). Oppose to the traditional LAN-connected NPW, SCI- connected NPW can provide physically shared memory and cache coherence among workstations across a network with high bandwidth (1Gbyte/sec) and low latency (microseconds). The research will provide the understanding of the new parallel architecture which is highlighted by contradiction between its closely-coupled nature due to shared memory and cache coherence and its loosely- coupled nature due to the physical distance between workstations and independent operations of the workstations. This research will result in models of various designs of SCI-connected NPW and their comparisons, operating system designs to support such architectures, and performance data based on typical parallel applications. The result will be an important step towards inexpensive but powerful and widely available parallel computing platforms. The work will be done in three steps: (1) Model the architectural characteristics of SCI-connected NPE. (2) Design and implement operating system software supports based on the hardware and applications requirements. System level performance will also be studied. (3) Design and implement application prototypes to obtain performance data. Simulation will be used to predict the performance of large scale SCI-NPWs. ***