ATOMIC: A Local Communication Network Created Through Repeated Application of Multicomputing Components

Abstract

One approach to creating gigabit local area communication technology is to consider it as a wide area network (WAN) that operates over shorter distances. This approach is best exemplified by ATM cell technology and B-ISDN. Another approach considers it to be multicomputer intra-computer communication that operates over longer distances. An example of the latter approach is discussed in this paper. Multicomputer chips have been used at the Information Sciences Institute (USC/ISI) to create a network that bridges the two lowest layers of the networking distance hierarchy: from intra-computer to local area. The ATOMIC network operates between network nodes over distances that scale from a centimeter to many meters. The ATOMIC prototype now consists of six Sun Microsystems workstations interconnected by a network of 500 Mb/s point-to-point channels to a 3 Gb/s mesh router board. Full TCP/IP support is provided. Introduction A multicomputer is a group of independent processor/memory nodes..