Abstract

We introduce a formalism which allows to treat computer architecture as a formal optimization problem. We apply this to the design of shared memory parallel machines. Present computers of this type support the programming model of a shared memory. But simultaneous access to the shared memory by several processors is in many situations processed sequentially. Asymptotically good solutions for this problem are offered by theoretical computer science. We modify these constructions under engineering aspects and improve the price/performance ratio by roughly a factor of 6. The resulting machine has surprisingly good price/performance ratio even if compared with distributed memory machines. For almost all access patterns of all processors into the shared memory, access is as fast as the access of only a single processor. 1 Introduction Commercially available parallel machines can be classified as distributed memory machines or shared memory machines. Exchange of data between different proce...

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