SCI: Scalable Coherent Interface: Architecture and Software for High-Performance Compute Clusters

Hermann Hellwagner, Alexander Reinefeld (auth.), Hermann Hellwagner, Alexander Reinefeld (eds.)3540666966, 9783540666967

Scalable Coherent Interface (SCI) is an innovative interconnect standard (ANSI/IEEE Std 1596-1992) addressing the high-performance computing and networking domain. This book describes in depth one specific application of SCI: its use as a high-speed interconnection network (often called a system area network, SAN) for compute clusters built from commodity workstation nodes. The editors and authors, coming from both academia and industry, have been instrumental in the SCI standardization process, the development and deployment of SCI adapter cards, switches, fully integrated clusters, and software systems, and are closely involved in various research projects on this important interconnect. This thoroughly cross-reviewed state-of-the-art survey covers the complete hardware/software spectrum of SCI clusters, from the major concepts of SCI, through SCI hardware, networking, and low-level software issues, various programming models and environments, up to tools and application experiences.

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Table of contents :
Front Matter….Pages –
SCI and Competitive Interconnects for Cluster Computing….Pages 1-2
The SCI Standard and Applications of SCI….Pages 3-37
A Comparison of Three Gigabit Technologies: SCI, Myrinet and SGI/Cray T3D….Pages 39-68
SCI Hardware….Pages 69-70
Dolphin SCI Adapter Cards….Pages 71-87
The TUM PCI/SCI Adapter….Pages 89-101
Interconnection Networks with SCI….Pages 103-104
Low-Level SCI Protocols and Their Application to Flexible Switches….Pages 105-123
SCI Rings, Switches, and Networks for Data Acquisition Systems….Pages 125-149
Scalability of SCI Ringlets….Pages 151-166
Affordable Scalability Using Multi-Cubes….Pages 167-175
Device Driver Software and Low-Level APIs….Pages 177-178
Interfacing SCI Device Drivers to Linux….Pages 179-190
SCI Physical Layer API….Pages 191-205
Message Passing Libraries….Pages 207-208
SCI Sockets Library….Pages 209-229
TCP/IP over SCI under Linux….Pages 231-237
PVM for SCI Clusters….Pages 239-248
ScaMPI – Design and Implementation….Pages 249-261
Shared Memory Programming Models and Runtime Mechanisms….Pages 263-265
Shared Memory vs Message Passing on SCI: A Case Study Using Split-C….Pages 267-280
A Shared Memory Programming Interface for SCI Clusters….Pages 281-290
True Shared Memory Programming on SCI-based Clusters….Pages 291-311
Implementing a File System Interface to SCI….Pages 313-331
Programming SCI Clusters Using Parallel CORBA Objects….Pages 333-348
The MuSE Runtime System for SCI Clusters: A Flexible Combination of On-Stack Execution and Work Stealing….Pages 349-364
Benchmark Results and Application Experiences….Pages 365-366
Large-Scale SCI Clusters in Practice: Architecture and Performance….Pages 367-381
Shared Memory Parallelization of the GROMOS96 Molecular Dynamics Code….Pages 383-396
SCI Prototyping for the Second Level Trigger System of the ATLAS Experiment….Pages 397-414
Tools for SCI Clusters….Pages 415-415
SCI Monitoring Hardware and Software: Supporting Performance Evaluation and Debugging….Pages 417-432
Monitoring SCI Clusters….Pages 433-441
Multi-User System Management on SCI Clusters….Pages 443-461
Perspectives….Pages 463-463
Industrial Takeup of SCI and Future Developments….Pages 465-480
Back Matter….Pages –