iWarp: an integrated solution to high-speed parallel computing

A description is given of the iWarp architecture and how it supports various communication models and system configurations. The heart of an iWarp system is the iWarp component: a single-chip processor that requires only the addition of memory chips to form a complete system building block, called the iWarp cell. Each iWarp component contains both a powerful computation engine that runs at 20 MFLOPS (million floating-point operations per second) and a high-throughput (320 Mb/s), low-latency (100-150-ns) communication engine for interfacing with other iWarp cells. Because of their strong computation and communication capabilities, the iWarp components provide a versatile building block for high-performance parallel systems ranging from special-purpose systolic arrays to general-purpose distributed memory computers. They can support both fine-grain parallel and coarse-grain distributed computation models simultaneously in the same system. The initial iWarp demonstration system consists of an 8×8 torus of iWarp cells, delivering more than 1.2 GFLOP (billions of FLOPS). It can be expanded to include up to 1024 cells