Title :
Analysis of 100 Mb/s Ethernet for the Whitney commodity computing testbed
Author :
Fineberg, Samuel A. ; Pedretti, Kevin T.
Author_Institution :
Tandem Labs., Compaq Comput. Corp., Cupertino, CA, USA
Abstract :
We evaluate the performance of a fast Ethernet network configured with a single switch, a single hub, a combination of hubs and switches, and a 4×4 2D tents topology in a testbed cluster of “commodity ” Pentium Pro PCs. An MPI collective communication benchmark and the NAS Parallel Benchmarks version 2.2 (NPB2) show that the torus network performs best for all sizes that we were able to test (up to 16 nodes). For larger networks the Ethernet switch outperforms the hub, though its performance is far less than peak. The hub/switch combination tests indicate that the NAS parallel benchmarks are relatively insensitive to hub densities of less than 7 nodes per hub
Keywords :
local area networks; multiprocessor interconnection networks; performance evaluation; 100 Mb/s Ethernet; 2D tents topology; MPI collective communication benchmark; NAS Parallel Benchmarks version 2.2; Pentium Pro PCs; Whitney commodity computing testbed; performance evaluation; single hub; single switch; torus network; Cities and towns; Costs; Electronic switching systems; Ethernet networks; Microcomputers; NASA; Personal communication networks; Switches; Testing; Workstations;
Conference_Titel :
Frontiers of Massively Parallel Computation, 1999. Frontiers '99. The Seventh Symposium on the
Conference_Location :
Annapolis, MD
Print_ISBN :
0-7695-0087-0
DOI :
10.1109/FMPC.1999.750610
