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The nCUBE 2.

Machine type: Distributed-memory multi-processor.
Models: nCUBE 2.
Operating system: Internal OS transparent to the user, SunOS (Sun's Unix variant) on the front-end system.
Connection structure: Multistage crossbar.
Compilers: Extended Fortran 77, ANSI C, C++.

System parameters:

Performance:

Note: and for a 1,024 node system are quoted.

The nCUBE 2 is presently the only commercially available machine with a hypercube structure. The nCUBE uses in-house developed processors which have a performance of 3.3 Mflop/s in 32-bit precision and of 2.4 Mflop/s in 64-bit precision. The 2 model is virtually identical to its successor the nCUBE 2S, however, the clock cycle of the processor is 20% lower. The communication speed is 2.75 MB/s and a wormhole routing technique is used that makes the communication speed almost independent of the distance between nodes in the system. The maximum size of the nCUBE 2 is 8192 processors. There are 14 outward connections per node of which 13 are used for inter-processor communication while the fourteenth is used for the distributed I/O system which therefore has the nice property that it scales with the number of nodes.

Within the hypercube sub-cubes can be allocated to accomodate more users. A queue of tasks is set up with (sub)-cubes of the required size. Programs may be written to determine the sub-cube dimensions just before execution.



top500@rz.uni-mannheim.de
Tue Nov 14 15:39:09 PST 1995