A shared-memory multiprocessor system using the raw tiled architecture

Recent trends in microprocessor design have moved away from dedicated hardware mechanisms to exposed architectures in which basic functionality is implemented in software. To demonstrate the flexibility of this scheme, I implement a shared memory system on Raw, a tiled multiprocessor. A traditional directory-based cache coherence system is used. The directories are fully resident on several tiles, and the remaining tiles act as users, with cache maintenance routines accessed via interrupt. Previous implementations of shared-memory systems have mostly relied on a combination of dedicated hardware and user-enabled software hooks, with one notable exception, Alewife, combining basic hardware with software support for corner cases. Here, the focus is moved to placing as much support for basic cases into software as possible. The system is designed to minimise custom hardware and user responsibilities. I prove the feasibility of such a design on an exposed architecture such as Raw.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Jakab, Levente, 1981-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Anant Agarwal.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/28394

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/28394