Typhoon-Zero Implementation: The Vortex Module

This report describes Vortex, an Mbus module designed to provide hardware support for the Tempest parallel programming interface on clusters of Sun Sparcstation 10 and 20 workstations. The module consists primarily of two Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), and two static RAM chips, both of commodity origin. Vortex is the only custom hardware needed for a distributed shared memory system, called Typhoon-Zero, which is currently in production and is intended to be a prototype for the proposed Typhoon DSM system. This report rst presents background information on the Tempest interface and our decision to prototype Typhoon, then gives a description of the SPARC Mbus. Next the theory of operation for Vortex is given, followed by a comprehensive description of the Vortex architecture. Afterward, FPGA selection and design issues are discussed, as well as our design methodology for producing the Vortex module. Next, the logic and the printed circuit board implementation, veriication and testing processes are described. Finally, CAD tool diiculties, timing problems and bugs encountered during the design process are described along with the solutions developed to address them. Verilog source code, printed circuit board schematics and other code are presented in the Appendices.