The structure and design of multicom, a small multiprocessor with multiport memory based communication

摘要

Interprocessor communication in multiprocessors is a very important task and requires both high handwidth and low cost. This paper introduces a novel structure for interprocessor communication using multiport memory instead of serial links or dual-port memory. It then discusses the structure and implementation of MultiCom, a small MIMD muliprocessor system which is specifically designed to check the efficiency of this kind of communication. The main features of the communication scheme are presented and the design of hardware and software are explained. The measured communication bandwidth for the system is 45.5 MByte/sec which shows an 11 times improvement compared to a system using dual port memories. In addition it shows a four-fold reduction in the cost of the sysem.