Bandwidth availability of multiple-bus multiprocessors

Abstract

The effect of failures on the performance of multiple-bus multiprocessors is considered. Bandwidth expressions for this architecture are derived for uniform and nonuniform memory references. Mathematical models are developed to compute the reliability and the performance-related bandwidth availability (BA). The results obtained for the multiple-bus interconnection are compared with those of a crossbar. The models are also extended to analyze the partial bus structure, where the memories are divided into groups and each group is connected to a subset of buses. The reliability and the BA of the multiple-bus and partial bus architectures are compared.