Memory latency evaluation in cluster-based cache-coherent multiprocessor systems with different interconnection topologies

This research investigates memory latency of cluster-based cache-coherent multiprocessor systems with different interconnection topologies. We focus on a cluster-based architecture which is a variation of Stanford DASH architecture. The architecture, also, has some similarities with the STiNG architecture from Sequent Computer System Inc. In this architecture, a small number of processors and a portion of shared-memory are connected through a bus inside each cluster.;As the number of processors per cluster is small, snoopy protocol is used inside each cluster. Each processor has two levels of caches and for each cluster a separate directory is maintained. Clusters are connected using directory-based scheme through an interconnection network to make the system scaleable. Trace-driven simulation has been developed to evaluate the overall memory latency of this architecture using three different network topologies, namely ring, mesh, and hypercube. For each network topology, the overall memory latency has been evaluated running a representative set of SPLASH-2 applications. Simulation results show that, the cluster-based multiprocessor system with hypercube topology outperforms those with mesh and ring topologies.