The J-machine network

The structure and implementation of J-Machine network, a 3-D mesh using wormhole routing and virtual channels to provide two network priorities, is described. Each network channel is 9-b wide and operates at 32 MHz. Each J-Machine node contains network routers that guide messages between the six bidirectional channels incident on each node, and a network interface that handles messages originating or terminating at the node. The router is fully synchronous, uses absolute addressing, and performs dimension-order routing. A novel pad design permits the bidirectional channels to reverse direction each cycle without danger of conduction overlap. The J-machine network provides low latency communication fabric for up to 64 k Message Driven Processor nodes