The SP1 high-performance switch

Author

Stunkel, Craig B. ; Shea, Dennis G. ; Grice, Don G. ; Hochschild, Peter H. ; Tsao, Michael

Author_Institution

IBM Thomas J. Watson Res. Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, USA

fYear

1994

fDate

23-25 May 1994

Firstpage

150

Lastpage

157

Abstract

The IBM scalable POWERparallel systems 9076 SP1 connects RISC System/6000 processors via a communication network called the high-performance switch. This switch-based upon the Vulcan parallel processor incorporates a number of unusual features to enhance reliability, diagnose faults, and simplify cabling. This paper examines the SP1 switch architecture and implementation and overviews the switch support software. The switch is a bidirectional MIN, and provides at least 4 usable redundant paths for most pairs of communicating nodes

Keywords

IBM computers; fault tolerant computing; multiprocessor interconnection networks; parallel architectures; parallel machines; switching systems; IBM; RISC System/6000; SP1; Vulcan parallel processor; bidirectional MIN; bidirectional multistage interconnection network; communicating nodes; communication network; fault diagnosis; high-performance switch; redundant paths; reliability; scalable POWERparallel systems; switch architecture; switch support software; Aggregates; Bandwidth; Communication networks; Communication switching; Computer architecture; Packet switching; Reduced instruction set computing; Switches; Telecommunication network reliability; Trademarks;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Scalable High-Performance Computing Conference, 1994., Proceedings of the

Conference_Location

Knoxville, TN

Print_ISBN

0-8186-5680-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SHPCC.1994.296638

Filename

296638