Performance aspects of switched SCI systems

Author

Liebhart, Manfred

Author_Institution

CERN, Geneva, Switzerland

fYear

1997

fDate

5-8 Aug 1997

Firstpage

223

Lastpage

231

Abstract

The Scalable Coherent Interface (SCI) defines a high-speed interconnect that provides a coherent distributed shared memory system. With the use of switches separate rings can be connected to form large topology-independent configurations. It has been realized that congestion in SCI systems generates additional retry traffic which reduces the available communication bandwidth. This paper investigates additional flow control mechanisms for overloaded switches. They are based on a supplementary retry delay and show a significant throughput gain. Furthermore two different management schemes for the output buffers are investigated. Computer simulations are used to compare the models and to determine system parameters

Keywords

distributed memory systems; multiprocessor interconnection networks; performance evaluation; shared memory systems; system buses; telecommunication congestion control; Computer simulations; coherent distributed shared memory system; congestion control; flow control mechanisms; high-speed interconnect; management schemes; output buffers; performance aspects; retry traffic; scalable coherent interface; switched SCI systems; system parameters; topology-independent configurations; Bandwidth; Channel allocation; Communication switching; Communication system control; Communication system traffic control; Delay; Informatics; Protocols; Switches; Traffic control;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

High Performance Distributed Computing, 1997. Proceedings. The Sixth IEEE International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Portland, OR

ISSN

1082-8907

Print_ISBN

0-8186-8117-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/HPDC.1997.626408

Filename

626408