ATM and Fast Ethernet Network Interfaces for User-Level Communication

Fast Ethernet and ATM are two attractive network technologies for interconnecting workstation clusters for parallel and distributed computing. This paper compares network interfaces with and without programmable co-processors for the two types of networks using the U-Net communication architecture to provide low-latency and high-bandwidth communication. U-Net provides protected, user-level access to the network interface and offers application-level round-trip latencies as low as 60µsec over Fast Ethernet and 90µsec over ATM. The design of the network interface and the underlying network fabric have a large bearing on the U-Net design and performance. Network interfaces with programmable co-processors can transfer data directly to and from user space while others require aid from the operating system kernel. The paper provides detailed performance analysis of U-Net for Fast Ethernet and ATM, including application-level performance on a set of Split-C parallel benchmarks. These resul...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1997
• Where: HPCA
• Authors: Matt Welsh, Anindya Basu, Thorsten von Eicken
• Keywords: Distributed And Parallel Computing, Fast Ethernet, HPCA 1997, Network Interfaces, Programmable Co-processors