Hypercube Supercomputers

The architecture and applications of the class of highly parallel distributed-memory multiprocessors based on the hypercube interconnection structure are surveyed. The history of hypercube computers from their conceptual origins in the 1960s to the recent introduction of commercial machines is briefly reviewed. The properties of hypercube graphs relevant to their use in supercomputers are examined, including connectivity, routing, and embedding. The hardware and software characteristics of current hypercubes are discussed, emphasizing the unique aspects of their operating systems and programming languages. A sample C program is presented to illustrate the single-code multiple-data programming style typical of distributed-memory machines in general, and hypercubes in particular. Two contrasting hypercube applications are presented and analyzed: image processing and branch-and-bound optimization. The paper concludes with a discussion of current trends.