Trends in Supercomputer Networks

Craig Stunkel

IBM T. J. Watson Research Center

Monday, September 20, 2004
1:00pm - SENSQ 5317

Refreshments at 12:45pm

Abstract

In this talk, we examine the recent past and present of interconnection networks in parallel supercomputer systems and high-end clusters. Recent trends include an increasing emphasis on small message performance, an increasing use of commodity or industry-standard networks, and a slowly increasing switch radix. Optical links are finally becoming more commonplace, although optical switches have made little inroads. The topology wars of the early 1990s have largely subsided, with two apparent winners. Based on these and other trends, we make a few predictions about future interconnection networks.

Biography of Speaker

Craig Stunkel is a research staff member at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY. He received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana in 1990. After joining IBM Research in 1990, he became one of the co-designers of the Vulcan parallel computer prototype, and incorporated the Vulcan switching network into the High-Performance Switch of IBM's SP1 and SP2 parallel supercomputer offerings. He made numerous contributions to the SP Switch2 network (also known as Colony, appearing in the ASCI White system in 2000) and to the current SP High-Performance Switch (also known as Federation, which will be used in the 200 Tflop ASCI Purple machine). He remains heavily involved in the architecture and design of future switching networks for IBM. He currently serves as manager of the Scalable Server Networks department.