Abstract
This chapter presents an analysis of the scalability of Scali systems. A Scali high-performance server consists of compute nodes, interconnected by a high-speed, low-latency SCI interconnect. The topology addressed in this paper will be direct networks based on r-ary f-cubes, or multi-dimensional tori, also called multi-cubes. The focus is on the scalability of a specific implementation of the SCI architecture, namely the PCI to SCI adapter boards from Dolphin Interconnect Solutions [5]. The adapter boards are enhanced with more than one SCI link controller (LC) in order to increase the number of supported dimensions (or fan-outs).
We show how the SCI ringlets and the internal bus in each adapter limit scalability of the interconnect, and how the two relate to each other. The internal bus (the B-Link) is used to take packets between different dimensions and between each dimension and the PCI interface towards the local node.
The resulting analysis can serve as a guide to select the right topology for a given system size.We discuss how the interconnect scales with respect to the amount of traffic each node can generate, which is limited to the bandwidth of a single PCI bus, and argue that these topologies scale to 512 nodes using state-of-the-art technology.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Dally, W.J., Seitz, C.L.: Deadlock-Free Message Routing in Multiprocessor Interconnection Networks. IEEE Transactions on Computers 36(5), 547–553 (1987)
Dolphin Interconnect Solutions. A Backside Link (B-Link) for Scalable Coherent Interface (SCI) Nodes, draft 2.4 edition (September 1995)
Dolphin Interconnect Solutions. PCI-SCI Bridge Functional Specification, version 3.01 edition (November 1996)
Dolphin Interconnect Solutions. Link Controller LC-2 Specification, version 1.03 edition (October 1997) Preliminary version
Dolphin Interconnect Solutions Inc. PCI-SCI Cluster Adapter Specification, version 1.1 edition (May 1996)
Johnson, R.E., Goodman, J.R.: Interconnect Topologies with Point-to-Point Rings. Technical Report 1058, CS Department, University of Wisconsin Madison (December 1991)
Omang, K.: Performance of a Cluster of PCI Based UltraSparc Workstations Interconnected with SCI. In: Panda, D.K., Stunkel, C.B. (eds.) CANPC 1998. LNCS, vol. 1362, pp. 232–246. Springer, Heidelberg (1998)
PCI Local Bus Specification, Revision 2.1
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bugge, H., Omang, K. (1999). Affordable Scalability Using Multi-Cubes. In: Hellwagner, H., Reinefeld, A. (eds) SCI: Scalable Coherent Interface. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1734. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/10704208_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/10704208_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-66696-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47048-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive