The design of a real-time communication network for parallel processing

A novel dynamic interconnection network for parallel processing systems is presented. During task execution, process-to-process communications are measured. On the basis of these measurements an optimal network topology is derived. By introducing a network priority, real-time applications can be supported. The total communication time is minimized. The network structure is hidden to the user. A communication between two processes only requires an identification of the source and the destination process. The user is provided a virtual network. All routing computations are performed by the network, thus not placing a load on the processors. In addition, the network completely controls itself. Therefore, no processor time is requested for network computations