Design and Simulation of the Key Components of the Aquarius IIU System

Darren R. Busing

EECS Department
University of California, Berkeley
Technical Report No. UCB/CSD-90-564
January 1990

This report presents the synthesis of a node of the Aquarius IIU multiprocessor system for the execution of Prolog. It includes the design of the prefetcher and cache controllers used in the system, as well as [the] simulation of the system between its main processor, the VLSI-PLM, and the VME bus to which Aquarius IIU nodes are connected.

The prefetcher included in this report not only fetches, formats, and supplies instructions, but also maintains the program counter for the VLSI-PLM. It executes some changes-of-control on its own, and receives other change-of-control commands from the VLSI-PLM. The controllers, two each for separate data and instruction caches on each node, cooperate to support a snooping cache-lock state protocol developed by Philip Bitar of the Aquarius group. In particular, this protocol minimizes bus traffic associated with locking blocks.

Simulation results are included in this report to verify the correctness of the node design.


BibTeX citation:

@techreport{Busing:CSD-90-564,
    Author = {Busing, Darren R.},
    Title = {Design and Simulation of the Key Components of the Aquarius IIU System},
    Institution = {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year = {1990},
    Month = {Jan},
    URL = {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1990/6185.html},
    Number = {UCB/CSD-90-564},
    Abstract = {This report presents the synthesis of a node of the Aquarius IIU multiprocessor system for the execution of Prolog. It includes the design of the prefetcher and cache controllers used in the system, as well as [the] simulation of the system between its main processor, the VLSI-PLM, and the VME bus to which Aquarius IIU nodes are connected. <p> The prefetcher included in this report not only fetches, formats, and supplies instructions, but also maintains the program counter for the VLSI-PLM. It executes some changes-of-control on its own, and receives other change-of-control commands from the VLSI-PLM. The controllers, two each for separate data and instruction caches on each node, cooperate to support a snooping cache-lock state protocol developed by Philip Bitar of the Aquarius group. In particular, this protocol minimizes bus traffic associated with locking blocks. <p> Simulation results are included in this report to verify the correctness of the node design.}
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Report
%A Busing, Darren R.
%T Design and Simulation of the Key Components of the Aquarius IIU System
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 1990
%@ UCB/CSD-90-564
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1990/6185.html
%F Busing:CSD-90-564