CONTENT

S.NO NAME OF THE TOPICS NUMBER OF SLIDES

1. Brief introduction about 2

multicomputer

2. Multicomputer hardware 1

3. Interconnection technologies 5

4. Switching schemes used in 2

multicomputer
 MULTICOMPUTER??

• A multicomputer system is a cluster of computers that

operate as a singular computer and that are attached via an
interconnection network to communicate.

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C C C C

M C C M
INTERCONNECT
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C C C C

M M M M
• It is easy to build because the basic component is just a
stripped-down personal compute with the addition of a high
performance NIC.
• As the multicomputer is capable of message passing between
the processors , it is possible to divide the tasks between the
processors to complete the task.
• The performance of the multicomputer is usually defined in
terms of the average distance between the nodes and the
average traffic density on a link.
 MULTICOMPUTER HARDWARE

• The basic node of a multicomputer consist of a CPU , memory,

a NIC but there is no graphic adapter ,monitor , keyboard and
mouse.
• When a node fails or it is removed from the cluster, the rest of
the processes running on the cluster can continue.
INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGY:

1. A single switch:

 Nodes are connected via cables . There may be one switch to

which all the nodes are connected in the star topology.
2. A ring:

 In this topology ,nodes are connected in a form of a ring , with

two wires coming out the NIC , one going into the node on the
left and one going into the node on the right.
3. A grid:

 This design has a diameter, which is the longest path between

any two nodes and which increases only as the square root of
the number of nodes .
4. Double torus:

 It is more fault tolerant than the grid and the diameter is

also less because the opposite corners can now
communicate in only two hops.
5. Cube:

 It is a regular 3-D topology.

 Here it is 2×2×2 cube but it could be K×K×K cube.
6. A 4-D hypercube:

 4-D cube built from two 3-D cubes with the corresponding
nodes connected.
 SWITCHING SCEMES USED IN
MULTICOMPUTERS:
Store-and-forward packet switching:
 Circuit switching:

• The first switch ,first establish a path through all the switches
to the destination switch.
• Once the path has been setup, the bits are pumped all the way
from the source to the destination.
• After the packet has been sent , the path must be torn down
again.
 References:

1. Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Modern Operating Systems, 4th

Edition, Pearson Education,2014.
2. Silberschatz, Galvin, Gagne, Operating system concepts,10th
Edition,Wiley,2017.
THNAK YOU