Performance Considerations Relating to the Design of Interconnection Networks for Multiprocessors Systems

Choosing the best interconnection scheme for a multiprocessor is no easy task. This paper presents a two phase analysis to assist in this task. The two phases of the analysis are analyti cal, and simulation. The analytical phase introduces a new metric called the network bandwidth require ment, or nbr. The nbr is an estimate for the in terconnecting network link speed of a multiprocessor. This result is used in the second phase of the analy sis, different multiprocessor configurations are simu lated using stochastic activity networks to verify the results of the analytical phase, and analyze the effects of contention and memory design on performance.