The Meerkat multicomputer: tradeoffs in multicomputer architecture
Robert C. Bedichek · 1995
The Meerkat Multicomputer: Tradeoffs in Multicomputer Architecture by Robert C. Bedichek Co-Chairpersons of Supervisory Committee: Professor Henry M. Levy Professor Edward D. Lazowska Department of Computer Science and Engineering A central problem preventing the wide application of distributed memory multicomputers has been their high price, especially for small installations. High prices are due to long design times, support for scaling to thousands of nodes, and high production costs. This thesis demonstrates a new approach that combines some carefully chosen restrictions on scaling with a software-intensive methodology. We used a concrete design, Meerkat, as a vehicle for exploring the multicomputer design space. Meerkat is a distributed memory multicomputer architecture effective in the range from several to hundreds of processors. It uses a two-dimensional, passive backplane to connect nodes composed of processors, memory, and I/O devices. The interconnect is conceptually simple...