The Cm* Multiprocessor Project: A Research Review

Abstract
The 50-processor Cm multiprocessor became operational in fall 1979, making it one of the largest multiprocessors in existence. The associated operating systems are nearing the point that they can be used to harness the computation power of Cm to run experimental applications. Thus, the Cm project is nearing the end of the development phase and is entering an experimental phase. The most important recent milestones for the Cm project are: A stable, operational, Cm/50 configuration. It is routinely in use by several different research groups at a time. Some enhancements to hardware continue. In particular, a prototype disk controller has just been completed. Two operating systems, STAROS and MEDUSA, now run on multiple clusters. They have just reached the state of beginning to support user applications and are in the process of being tuned for performance. Crucial to performance is the microcoded portion of each of the operating systems; microcode performance measurements are discussed in detail in this review. Initial 50-processor application measurements. This document reports the results of the first experiments to utilize the full fifty- processor Cm configuration.