HPC/VORX: a local area multicomputer system

A system is described that combines the major strengths of local area networks and multicomputers, namely resource sharing over geographically significant distances and small communication latencies. The result is a new architecture called a local area multicomputer (LAM). The system that is described attempts to solve the seemingly incompatible needs of the two application domains by utilizing a high-capacity, low-latency interconnection network called the HPC supported by the VORX multiprocessor computing environment. For systems with hundreds of nodes, the network capacity is in the Gb/s range, and the latency for small messages is about 10 μs. The HPC can connect resources located several kilometers apart. The VORX environment provides the necessary program development tools and resource management functions needed to experiment with distributed applications. Two applications are outlined to show the diverse uses for a LAM system and the status of an 80-node system that includes 70 adjunct processors and ten SUN 3 workstations/fileservers