An HIPPI interconnection system

The proposed HIPPI standard, a connection-oriented communication standard for very-high-speed interconnection systems connecting high-end computing systems, is discussed. The problems of managing connections and of configuring the interconnection system as either a single crossbar switch or as a clique of crossbar switches are considered. Three connection management policies are introduced: a centralized policy, a broadcast policy, and a distributed policy. To compare these policies for different system configurations, a set of models is introduced and used to evaluate a range of interconnection system configurations. The results of these models and the use of a cost measure make it possible to compare the cost and performance of different configurations and alternative connection management policies