An Experimental Study into the Effect of Multiprocessor Interconnection Networks on System Performance

该项目的长期目标是研究并行算法结构与并行计算系统结构之间的关系。很明显，为了实现并行系统的计算能力，有必要将算法的结构与执行算法的并行计算机的结构相匹配。无论这种匹配是由应用程序程序员还是编译器完成的，都需要对并行算法和并行计算机组织之间的结构关系有一个基本的了解。这里提出的调查将为这一过程提供必要的见解。在本建议涵盖的项目阶段，调查将集中在并行计算系统互连网络的结构和设计如何影响系统的整体性能的基本问题上。互连网络提供并行系统模块之间的通信路径，是系统开销的主要来源。对于由大量处理器组成的并行系统，相对于理论最大值，这种开销会显著降低系统的性能。该项目将使用Rice并行处理试验台（Rice Parallel Processing Testbed）来评估这种开销的影响，这是一个复杂的模拟系统，用于预测在并行处理器上执行的真实并行程序的性能。

The long term goal of this project is to investigate the relationship between the structure of parallel algorithms and the structure of parallel computing systems. It seems clear that it will be necessary to match the structure of an algorithm to the structure of the parallel computer on which it executes in order to realize the computing power of the parallel system. Whether this matching is done by the applications programmer or a compiler, a basic understanding of the structural relationship between parallel algorithms and parallel computer organization will be needed. This investigation proposed here will provide needed insight into this process. During the phase of the project covered in this proposal, the investigation will concentrate on the basic question of how the structure and design of a parallel computing system's interconnection network affects the overall performance of the system. The interconnection network provides communication paths between the modules of a parallel system and is a major source of system overhead. For Parallel systems composed of a large number of processors, this overhead can significantly reduce the system's performance relative to its theoretical maximum. This project will evaluate the effect of this overhead using the Rice Parallel Processing Testbed, a sophisticated simulation system developed for predicting the performance of real parallel programs executing on parallel processors.