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US 6,473,827 B2Granted
Distributed multi-fabric interconnect
AssigneeNCR Corporation
InventorsRobert James McMillen, Chinh Kim Nguyen
Life of this patent
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AssigneeNCR Corporation
InventorsRobert James McMillen, Chinh Kim Nguyen
Estimating the term…
An interconnect network having a plurality of identical fabrics partitions the switching elements of the fabrics, so that many links can be combined into single cables. In the partitioning method, one or more of the switching elements from the first stage of each of the fabrics are physically packaged onto the same board called a concentrator, and these concentrators are physically distributed among the processing nodes connected to the interconnect network. The concentrator allows all the links from each processing node to a concentrator, each of which need to be connected to different fabrics, to be combined into a single cable. Furthermore, the concentrator allows all the links from a single switching element in the first stage to be combined into a single cable to be connected to the subsequent or expansion (second and higher) stages of the fabric. The subsequent or expansion stages of each fabric can be implemented independently of other fabrics in a centralized location.
A massively parallel processing (MPP) system, comprising:
An interconnection network comprising a plurality of identical fabrics for interconnecting a plurality of processors for communication therebetween, each of the fabrics comprised of at least one stage, each stage comprised of a plurality of switching elements, one or more of the switching elements from a first stage of each of the fabrics being combined together in at least one concentrator, the concentrator allowing all links from each processor to the fabrics to be combined into a single cable coupled to the concentrator.
A concentrator for an interconnection network, the interconnection network comprising a plurality of identical fabrics for interconnecting a plurality of processors for communication therebetween, each of the fabrics comprised of at least one stage, each stage comprised of a plurality of switching elements, one or more of the switching elements from a first stage of each of the fabrics being combined together in the concentrator, wherein the concentrator allows all links from each processor to the fabrics to be combined into a single cable coupled to the concentrator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.