Hypercube supercomputers

Author

Hayes, John P. ; Mudge, Trevor

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Volume

77

Issue

12

fYear

1989

fDate

12/1/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1829

Lastpage

1841

Abstract

The architecture and applications of the class of highly parallel distributed-memory multiprocessors based on the hypercube interconnection structure are surveyed. The history of hypercube computers from their conceptual origins in the 1960s to the recent introduction of commercial machines is briefly reviewed. The properties of hypercube graphs relevant to their use in supercomputers, including connectivity, routing, and embedding, are examined. The hardware and software characteristics of current hypercubes are discussed, with emphasis on the unique aspects of their operating systems and programming languages. A sample C program is presented to illustrate the single-code, multiple-data programming style typical of distributed-memory machines in general, and hypercube applications in particular. Two contrasting hypercube applications are presented and analyzed: image processing and branch-and-bound optimization. Current trends are discussed

Keywords

C listings; computerised picture processing; optimisation; parallel architectures; parallel machines; parallel programming; C program; SCMD program; branch-and-bound optimization; connectivity; embedding; hypercube graphs; hypercube interconnection structure; hypercube supercomputers; image processing; multiple-data programming; operating systems; parallel distributed-memory multiprocessors; programming languages; routing; Application software; Computer architecture; Computer languages; Hardware; History; Hypercubes; Image analysis; Operating systems; Routing; Supercomputers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Proceedings of the IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9219

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/5.48826

Filename

48826