Improving the performance of bristled CC-NUMA systems using virtual channels and adaptivity

Current high-end parallel systems achieve low-latency, highbandwidth network communication through the use of aggressive design techniques and expensive mechanical and electrical parts. High-speed interconnection networks, which are crucial to achieve acceptable system performance, may account for an important fraction of the total cost of the machine. To reduce the network cost and still maintain scalability, bristled configurations, in which each router connects to several processing nodes, pose an attractive alternative. Their lower bandwidth, however, may adversely affect the efficiency of the parallel codes. In this paper, we show how virtual channels and adaptive routing can make bristled systems more attractive: overall performance improves in congested scenarios while remaining practically unaltered under light traffic conditions. Experimental results are obtained by using execution-driven simulation of a complete state-of-the-art CC-NUMA system, with dynamic superscalar pr...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1999
• Where: ICS
• Authors: José F. Martínez, Josep Torrellas, José Duato
• Keywords: Adaptive Routing, Distributed And Parallel Computing, ICS 1999, Non-bristled Hypercubes, Virtual Channels