Implementing a low cost, low latency parallel platform

Parallel ComputingPublished 1 February 1997

G. Chiola, Giuseppe Ciaccio

DOI10.1016/s0167-8191(96)00072-5

Source URL

Citations14

SJR quartileQ2

SJR score0.54

SNIP1.30

TL;DR

The preliminary performance measures obtained by GAMMA show how competitive such a cheap NOW is, and supply virtualization of the network interface close enough to the raw hardware to guarantee good performance.

Abstract

Abstract The cost of high-performance parallel platforms prevents parallel processing techniques from spreading in present applications. Networks of Workstations (NOW) exploiting off-the-shelf communication hardware, high-end PCs and standard communication software provide much cheaper but poorly performing parallel platforms. In our NOW prototype called GAMMA (Genoa Active Message MAchine) every node is a PC running a Linux operating system kernel enhanced with efficient communication mechanisms based on the Active Message paradigm. Active Messages supply virtualization of the network interface close enough to the raw hardware to guarantee good performance. The preliminary performance measures obtained by GAMMA show how competitive such a cheap NOW is.

Keywords

Computer Science

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