(54) SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A
DISTRIBUTED CROSSBAR NETWORK
USING A PLURALITY OF CROSSBARS
(75) Inventors: Gary B. Gostin, Richardson, TX (US);
Mark E. Shaw, Richardson, TX (US)
(73) Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development
Company, L.P., Houston, TX (US)
( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
(21) Appl.No.: 12/481,628
(22) Filed: Jun. 10, 2009
(65) Prior Publication Data
US 2009/0248948 Al Oct. 1, 2009
Related U.S. Application Data
(63) Continuation of application No. 11/346,041, filed on Feb. 2, 2006, now Pat. No. 7,568,063.
(51) Int. CI.
G06F13/00 (2006.01)
(52) U.S. CI 710/317; 710/316; 340/2.1; 340/2.2;
712/11; 712/12; 712/13; 712/32; 712/33
(58) Field of Classification Search 710/306,
710/316,317; 712/11,12, 13,32,33; 340/2.1,
340/2.2
See application file for complete search history. (56) References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
5,842,034 A * 11/1998 Bolstadetal 712/11
5,859,975 A * 1/1999 Brewer et al 709/213
5,881,272 A * 3/1999 Balmer 713/375
A system and method for single hop, processor-to-processor communication in a multiprocessing system over a plurality of crossbars are disclosed. Briefly described, one embodiment is a multiprocessing system comprising a plurality of processors having a plurality of high-bandwidth point-topoint links; a plurality of processor clusters, each processor cluster having a predefined number of the processors residing therein; and a plurality of crossbars, one of the crossbars coupling each of the processors of one of the plurality of processor clusters to each of the processors of another of the plurality of processor clusters, such that all processors are coupled to each of the other processors, and such that the number of crossbars is equal to [X*(X-l)/2], wherein X equals the number of processor clusters.
19 Claims, 7 Drawing Sheets
