Evaluation of parallel execution performance by highly parallel computer EM-4

The EM-4 is a highly parallel computer which achieves high performance in data communication as well as instruction execution. An EM-4 prototype which consists of 80 processing elements (PEs) has been fully operational since April 1990. This paper evaluates the basic parallel execution performance of the EM-4 prototype, considering the performance of instruction execution, network data transfer, and data synchronization. First, an attempt is made to achieve maximum performance by executing artificial programs and comparing them to the theoretical maximum performance. Next, the average performance is evaluated by executing simple programs. The results show that the instruction execution performance is 630 MIPS, the network data transfer is 400 Mpacket/s, and the data synchronization is 35 Msync/s.