Interconnection Networks for Highly Parallel Supercomputing Architectures

This paper treats (Multiple) Interconnection Networks (MINs), dealing in particular with their adoption in supercomputing architectures. The main properties and characteristics of MINs are recalled and some typical parallel computer architectures adopting MINs are summarized. Two main application classes of MINs are considered: parallel computer systems implemented by connecting together powerful processors and large shared memories, and dedicated supercomputing structures directly implementing highly parallel algorithms. For both application classes, the adoption of fault tolerance methods is discussed. Fault tolerance can be usefully adopted both to overcome production defects and faults arising during systems working life. Classic approaches to fault tolerance in MINs for parallel computer systems and some recent results in the less known field of fault tolerance in dedicated supercomputing structures are surveyed.