Supporting Sets of Arbitrary Connections on iWarp Through Communication Context Switches

In this paper we introduce the ConSet communication model for distributed memory parallel computers. The communication needs of an application program can be satisfied by some arbitrary set of connections which are partitioned into discrete phases. A communication context switch is used to select the active phase. We present an implementation of the ConSet model on the iWarp and describe its performance characteristics, contrasting it to a message passing implementation on the same machine. Our implementation demonstrateshow oneexisting parallel computercan function as a “reconfigurable network” without needing a new processor interconnect technology. The ConSet model works best when communication patterns can be optimized at compile time. We examine the interactions of the target architecture with the algorithmic problems encountered designing a communication compiler to effectively partition, route, and schedule connections. We built a prototype communication compiler for our ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1993
• Where: SPAA
• Authors: Anja Feldmann, Thomas Stricker, Thomas E. Warfel
• Keywords: Communication, Communication Pattern, ConSet Communication, Distributed And Parallel Computing, SPAA 1993