Performance analysis of the connection machine

This paper presents an analysis of the performance of the Connection Machine, with special emphasis on estimating the effect of its interprocessor communication architecture. A queueing model of the network architecture, including the NEWS and ROUTER networks, is used to compute the slow-down induced by message exchange between processors. Locality of the message exchanges is modelled by message sending probabilities which depend on whether a message is sent by a processor to another processor placed on the same NEWS network, or on the same ROUTER, or at a “remote” location which is only accessible via the ROUTER network. The specific slotted TDMA structure of the ROUTER Network communications is taken into account. The performance degradation of the Connection Machine as a function of the communication and architecture parameters is derived.