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NetCache: A network/cache hybrid for multiprocessors

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Parallel and Distributed Processing (IPPS 1999)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1586))

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Abstract

In this paper we propose the use of an optical network not only as the communication medium, but also as a system-wide cache for the shared data in a multiprocessor. More specifically, the basic idea of our novel network/cache hybrid (and associated coherence protocol), called NetCache, is to use an optical ring network on which some amount of recently-accessed shared data is continually sent around. These data are organized as a cache shared by all processors. We use detailed execution-driven simulations of a dozen applications to evaluate a multiprocessor based on our NetCache architecture. We compare a 16-node multiprocessor with a third-level NetCache against two highly-efficient systems based on the DMON and LambdaNet optical interconnects. Our results demonstrate that the NetCache multiprocessor outperforms the DMON and LambdaNet systems by as much as 99 and 79%, respectively. Based on these results, our main conclusion is that the NetCache is highly efficient for most applications.

This research was supported by Brazilian CNPq.

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José Rolim Frank Mueller Albert Y. Zomaya Fikret Ercal Stephan Olariu Binoy Ravindran Jan Gustafsson Hiroaki Takada Ron Olsson Laxmikant V. Kale Pete Beckman Matthew Haines Hossam ElGindy Denis Caromel Serge Chaumette Geoffrey Fox Yi Pan Keqin Li Tao Yang G. Chiola G. Conte L. V. Mancini Domenique Méry Beverly Sanders Devesh Bhatt Viktor Prasanna

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© 1999 Springer-Verlag

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Carrera, E.V., Bianchini, R. (1999). NetCache: A network/cache hybrid for multiprocessors. In: Rolim, J., et al. Parallel and Distributed Processing. IPPS 1999. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1586. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg . https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0097972

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0097972

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65831-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48932-0

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