Adaptive Deadlock-Free Routing in Multicomputers Using Only One Extra Virtual Channel

We present three protocols defin ing the relationship between messages and the chan nel resources requested: request-then-hold, requestthen wait, and request-then-relinquish. Based on the three protocols, we develop an adaptive deadlockfree routing algorithm called the SP routing. The SP routing uses shortest paths and is fully-adaptive, so messages can be routed via any of the shortest paths from the source to the destination. Since it is a minimal or shortest routing, the SP routing guar antees the freedom of livelocks. The SP routing is not limited to a specific network topology. The main requirement for an applicable network topology is that there exists a deterministic, minimal, deadlock-free routing algorithm. Most ex isting network topologies are equipped with such an algorithm. In this paper, we present an adaptive deadlock-free routing agorithm for n-dimensional meshes by using the SP routing. The hardware re quired by the SP routing uses only one extra virtual channel as compared to the deterministic routing.