Title
Evaluating the impact of locality on the performance of large-scale SCI multiprocessors
Abstract
Hierarchical ring-based multiprocessor systems are attractive and enjoy several advantages over other type of systems. They ensure unique paths between nodes, simple node interfaces and simple cross-ring connections. Furthermore, employing point-to-point links allows the system to run at high clock rate which increases bandwidth and decreases latency. This paper investigates the performance of hierarchical ring-based shared-memory multiprocessors. Rings in the hierarchy are composed of point-to-point, unidirectional links and apply the Scalable Coherent Interface (SCI) protocol. We pay special emphasis on the impact of locality on processor and interconnection design issues such as number of outstanding requests, and ring topology. We find that in order to exploit the power of hierarchical multiprocessors an accurate and appropriate model of locality must be used. Hierarchical multiprocessors that are well balanced (uniform) tend to provide lower latency and higher system throughput. For non-uniform systems, high degree of locality is required for the hierarchies to perform well. However, restricting the number of outstanding transactions per processor is important in decreasing packets latency and avoiding network contention.
Year
DOI
Venue
2001
10.1016/S0166-5316(01)00055-4
Perform. Eval.
Keywords
DocType
Volume
performance evaluation,sci ring-based,locality,hierarchical large-scale multiprocessors,large-scale sci multiprocessors,scalable interconnections,point to point
Journal
46
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
4
Performance Evaluation
1
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.36
13
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
M. Al-Rousan18713.91
James K. Archibald2632161.01
leroy bearnson330.77