Carlo H. Séquin and Richard M. Fujimoto

EECS Department
University of California, Berkeley
Technical Report No. UCB/CSD-82-107
October 1982

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1982/CSD-82-107.pdf

The influence of VLSI technology on the construction of distributed computing systems composed of hundreds of computers is investigated. After a review of Project X-tree, the concept of a modular communications domain to carry the inter-processor message traffic is introduction and analyzed. A separation of the switching circuitry from the user processors permits communication and computation to take place concurrently. It also provides the flexibility to match the network topology to a particular application and facilitates the construction of heterogeneous networks.

A design is presented for a set of VLSI building blocks that permit the construction of high-bandwidth networks of arbitrary topology, providing the modularity needed for incremental expansibility. The proposed VLSI switching components support message-based, virtual circuit communications over dedicated, time-multiplexed links. The simplest representative is the Y-component, a message switch with only three ports. Its usefulness for the construction of a variety of networks is shown with the analysis of simplified models. Some simulation results are presented that corroborate these findings.

BibTeX citation:

@techreport{Séquin:CSD-82-107,
    Author = {Séquin, Carlo H. and Fujimoto, Richard M.},
    Title = {X-Tree and Y-Components},
    Institution = {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year = {1982},
    Month = {Oct},
    URL = {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1982/5450.html},
    Number = {UCB/CSD-82-107},
    Abstract = {The influence of VLSI technology on the construction of distributed computing systems composed of hundreds of computers is investigated. After a review of Project X-tree, the concept of a modular communications domain to carry the inter-processor message traffic is introduction and analyzed. A separation of the switching circuitry from the user processors permits communication and computation to take place concurrently. It also provides the flexibility to match the network topology to a particular application and facilitates the construction of heterogeneous networks.  <p>  A design is presented for a set of VLSI building blocks that permit the construction of high-bandwidth networks of arbitrary topology, providing the modularity needed for incremental expansibility. The proposed VLSI switching components support message-based, virtual circuit communications over dedicated, time-multiplexed links. The simplest representative is the Y-component, a message switch with only three ports. Its usefulness for the construction of a variety of networks is shown with the analysis of simplified models. Some simulation results are presented that corroborate these findings.}
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Report
%A Séquin, Carlo H.
%A Fujimoto, Richard M.
%T X-Tree and Y-Components
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 1982
%@ UCB/CSD-82-107
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1982/5450.html
%F Séquin:CSD-82-107