Performance evaluation of SNAIL: A multiprocessor based on the simple serial synchronized multistage interconnection network architecture

Simple Serial Synchronized (SSS) Multistage Interconnection Network (MIN) is a novel MIN architecture for connecting processors and memory modules in multiprocessors. Synchronized bit-serial communication simplifies the structure/control, and also solves the pin-limitation problem. Here, design, implementation, and evaluation of a multiprocessor prototype called the SNAIL with the SSS-MIN are presented. The heart of SNAIL is a prototype 1 μm CMOS SSS-MIN gate array chip which exchanges packets from 16 inputs at a 50MHz clock speed. The message combining is implemented with only a 20% increase in hardware. From empirical evaluation with some application programs, it appears that the latency and synchronization overhead of the SSS-MIN are tolerable, and the bandwidth of the SSS-MIN is sufficient.