wjafyfe@watmath.UUCP (Andy Fyfe) (03/01/85)
The University of Waterloo (Computer Architecture Lab, under Dr. Neil
Ostlund) now has a prototype of the Intel cube. It is a 16-processor
system. Any interest in the cube is, of course, welcomed by the
University.
Node Board Hardware:
Each board has an 8MHz 286/287, with 512Kb of RAM, and up to
128Kb of ROM. Communication is via ethernet, with 7 82586
controller/82501 driver pairs for node to node communication,
and one additional pair for global host communication. All
of the 82586s, and the 286/287 have access to the local RAM.
The cube dimension is limited to 7. The boards are Multibus
II, in 2x4 Eurocard format.
The "BOX":
A "box" will hold 32 node boards, and up to 4 of these "boxes"
can be connected together to provide a 7-cube. It is possilbe
to remove the odd-numbered boards and replace them with
expansion boards for the remaining nodes (graphics, more
memory, etc.), using the LBX II bus (local bus extension,
on the P2 connector of the Multibus).
The Host:
The host is a 310 microcomputer, which is a 286 based Xenix
machine. The host will be able to communicate directly with
any node in the cube via the global ethernet (unlike the cosmic
cube, which used a corner cube as a "gateway").
Software:
Our prototype cube came with virtually no software, and our
work to date has been with software originally developed for
Waterloop, a ring of 64 processors (we can certainly discuss
that too!). The document I have on the software available
from Intel has "Proprietary" written all over it, so I'll have
to leave out specifics for now (until I check the current status).
The software will provide asyncronous or synchronous send/receive,
as well as automatic and reliable routing. Up to 255 processes
can be run in the node. Memory management and protection is
also provided. Software can be developed in C, Fortran, and,
of course, assembler.
Until production cubes are available, the above details are subject
to change.
As I've said, we have a cube, and we are writing software that runs
on it. For anyone who wants to know more about the cube, or what we
(the University of Waterloo) are doing with it, please ask. You
can send mail directly to "the boss", Neil Ostlund, at
{ihnp4, decvax, allegra, et. al}!watmath!watcal!nsostlund, or
to me, and we'll do our best.
--Andy Fyfe ...!{decvax, allegra, ihnp4, et. al}!watmath!wjafyfe
wjafyfe@waterloo.csnet