ATOLL: Performance and Cost Optimization of a San Interconnect

The goal of the ATOLL System Area Network (SAN) is the optimization of a communication system for cluster computing with respect to the following qualities: performance, cost, simplicity of use and general applicability. The design provides many new and unique features, which makes ATOLL an enabling technology in the area of cluster computing. After finishing the ATOLL design space analysis our major effort concentrated on the high performance chip implementation. The following paper concentrates on the aspects of the hardware optimization process at the different levels of the design.