Whats the Best Type of Interconnection Network for Multiprocessor MIMD Machines?
With a multiprocessor MIMD machine with several hundred processors it is important that memory access is fast and available. Each of the hundred processors will be accessing different memory location for data and instructions. Any slow access to either will impede upon performance of the machine as a whole. A single shared memory with a single bus will not perform as the memory bus will become a bottle neck. They are often called Uniform Memory Access machines (UMAs). Therefore each processor will need memory access of its own. One possibility is to give each processing element (PE) local memory of its own which can be shared across all the processors. This is often known as distributed shared memory MIMD and more popularly as Non-Uniform Memory Access machines (NUMA). It is also possible to use the local cache on a PE for local memory instead of external memory; these are called Cache-Only Memory Access architectures (COMA). Access to memory of any other processors local memory is slo
