KR0170595B1 - Software emulation method of xcent-net interface - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for emulating in software the function of a transmitter of a crossbar network router board (Xcent-Net InterFace) of a high-speed parallel computer at a microkernel level. The message transmission kernel for a conventional crossbar network includes a crossbar network router board. In order to solve the problem that the software was only available to the system, the present invention allows the transmitting kernel to store and transmit a crossbar network router board (XNIF) message in the message transmission buffer (MSB) by the first thread. The process of converting a message sent from the first thread of the second thread into an Ethernet message and notifying the completion of the transmission is performed so that the message transmission kernel for the crossbar network can be used by an Ethernet connected node without a crossbar network router board. One thing .

Description

Software Emulation Method for Transmitters of Crossbar Network Routers in High-Speed Parallel Computers

1 is a high-speed parallel computer architecture.

2 is a system architecture diagram used to implement the present invention.

3 is a structural diagram of a crossbar network interface (Xcent-Net InterFace) that is a crossbar network router board.

4 is a structural diagram of the present invention.

5 is a flowchart of managing a message to be transmitted and a message sent according to the present invention.

6 is a flow diagram for transmitting a message in the system architecture of FIG. 2 in accordance with the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

1: Crossbar network (Xcent-Net) 2: Node

3: handler 4: local memory

5: Crossbar Network Router Board (XNIF) 6: Ethernet

7: Ethernet board

8: Crossbar Network Router Board Emulator

9: PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus

10: Sender (SNI: Send Network Interface)

11: Receive Network Interface (RNI) 12: DMA Control Unit

13 bus interface unit 14 buffer control unit

15: retry control unit 16: message transmission unit

17: message transmission buffer (or MSB) 18: network control unit

19: packet transmission unit

20a: Message Send Buffer Control Register (or MCR)

20b: Transmit status register (or SSR)

21: Crossbar Network Router Board Head Message (Xnifhead)

22: Crossbar Network Router Board Body Message (Xnifbody)

23: MSB data structure 24: MCR data structure

25: SSR data structure 26: First thread

27: top buffer 30: second thread

31: lowest message 33: Ethernet message

The present invention relates to a software emulation method for a transmitter of a crossbar network router in a high-speed parallel computer. In particular, Xcent-Net (meaning a 10 × 10 crossbar network) crossbar, which is an internal network of a high-speed parallel computer at the microkernel level, is used. It is a method for emulating the transmitter function in software on a router board of a network. The transmitter of such a crossbar network router board is a hardware part that is a crossbar network interface that delivers a message generated from a processor to a crossbar network.

A high-speed parallel computer has a structure in which nodes composed of a processor and a memory are connected to a crossbar network. Therefore, each node is equipped with one crossbar network interface board in order to use the crossbar network. Messages from each node to remote nodes are sent across this board. The software that can send messages using the crossbar network interface is the kernel.

The crossbar network interface emulation method is required to use a kernel that has a message transfer function for the crossbar network before the hardware development of the high speed parallel computer is completed. And the emulation environment allows two systems to be connected by Ethernet. In addition, the emulation environment places a crossbar network interface emulator in the kernel of each system to create a virtual crossbar network environment over Ethernet.

The message sending kernel for a conventional crossbar network is software available only on systems with a crossbar network interface board. However, using the software emulation method developed in the present invention, a message transmission kernel for a crossbar network can be used even in an Ethernet connected system without a crossbar network interface board.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a software emulation method for a transmitter of a crossbar network router in a high-speed parallel computer for emulating the functions of the crossbar network interface board in software so that the existing message transmission kernel can be used even in a system without the crossbar network interface board. The purpose is.

A feature of the present invention for achieving the above object is to provide a crossbar network router board emulator in the kernel to use a kernel for transmitting messages across the crossbar network between nodes including a crossbar network router board in a high speed parallel computer, A message transmission buffer (MSB) for storing a message received by the transmission unit of the emulator and a status of the message transmission buffer can be displayed or controlled.

A message transmission buffer control register (MCR) and a transmission status register (SSR) for storing transmission error information, wherein the first thread and message are associated with the MSB, MCR, and SSR to receive a message transmission request. A method for emulating a function of sending a message to the Ethernet without the crossbar network router board by a second thread transmitting a crossbar network router board (XNIF) message to the MSB by the first thread. And a second step of storing and transmitting the message, and a second step of converting a message transmitted from the first thread of the first step into an Ethernet message by the second thread and notifying completion of transmission. You can use the message sending kernel for crossbar networks on nodes connected by boardless Ethernet. It is characterized in that. The first and second processes are performed in parallel to receive a message transmission request even during message transmission.

According to the first step, a first step of checking whether a read and write request is received while waiting for a request for the MSB delivered through the MCR, and transmitting a message in the case of a write request according to the investigation of the first step And a third step of requesting the second thread to request the second thread to transmit a message in the case of a read request according to the investigation of the first step. The second step includes a write request clearing step of clearing a write request in the MCR when the write request is examined by the first step, and moving the message to a correct position according to the state of the MSB after the clearing. A message moving step, a transmission checking step of checking whether the message can be transmitted after the message is moved, and a transmission request step of requesting to send a message to the second thread when the message can be sent according to the transmission checking. There is a characteristic. The third step may include a transmission error generation investigation step of investigating whether a transmission error has occurred when the read request is generated by the investigation of the first step, and a transmission error in the SSR when a transmission error occurs by the investigation step. An error information removing step of removing information, a read request clearing step of clearing a read request in the MCR when there is no transmission error by the investigation step and after removing the transmission error information, and after the read request clearing, the MSB A message removal step of moving and removing a message according to a state, a message existence determination step of determining whether a message exists after removing the message, and a transmission request requesting to transmit a message to the second thread if the message exists. It is characterized by consisting of steps. The message removing step removes the message in the lowest buffer of the MSB.

On the other hand, in the second process, step 1-1 where the second thread waits until the first thread of the first process receives a transmission request when the kernel is initialized, and a message to be transmitted is generated when the transmission request is generated. Step 2-1 of selecting a buffer in which the buffer is located; and reading step 3-1 of a crossbar network router board message from the selected MSB, and extracting information to be transmitted to Ethernet from the read message; and step 3-1 of the crossbar network router board. Step 4-1 of converting the message into an Ethernet message and then transmitting to Ethernet, Step 5-1 of investigating whether a transmission error has occurred after transmitting the Ethernet message, and if the Ethernet message transmission error occurs, Step 6-1 of recording the transmission error in the SSR so that the kernel transmitter can recognize the error; and, if the Ethernet message transmission error has not occurred, the transmission is completed. Is characterized in comprising the step 7-1 notifies the bride.

That is, the method of the present invention is a method of emulating the structure of the crossbar network interface transmitter and the function and the emulator structure, and then based on the design.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a structural diagram of a high-speed parallel computer. A high-speed parallel computer consists of several nodes connected to a crossbar network (Xcent-Net, 1). Each node 2 consists of four processors 3, a local memory 4, and a crossbar network interface (XNIF; Xcent-Net InterFace), which is a router board 5 of the crossbar network. Each node 2 is equipped with the same kernel software, and the inter-node communication is performed using the crossbar network router board 5, which is a communication part of the kernel.

2 is a system structural diagram to which the present invention is applied. Two nodes 2 are connected by Ethernet 6, and each node is composed of a processor 3, a local memory 3, and an Ethernet board 7. Unlike the first diagram, since the network connecting the two nodes 2 is Ethernet 6, an Ethernet board 7 must be used. In the local memory 4, the kernel of each node and the crossbar network router board emulator 8 of the present invention are included in the kernel. Therefore, the kernel communication portion can perform virtual crossbar network communication using the crossbar network router board emulator 8.

3 is a structural diagram of a crossbar network router board (XNIF) of FIG. The crossbar network router board (XNIF) is connected to the processor 3 of FIG. 1 through a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus (9). The crossbar network router board (XNIF) is divided into two parts, a send network interface (SNI) 10 and a receiver RNI. (Receive Network Interface) (11).

Since the present invention is an emulation method for the transmitter 10 of the crossbar network router board, only the transmitter (SNI) function will be described. The DMA (Direct Memory Access) control unit 12 has a function of reading data from the local memory 4 to be transmitted for message transmission. The bus interface unit 13 provides an interface between the transmitter 10 and the PCI bus 9. The buffer control unit 14 controls the writing and reading of the message send buffer 17 (MSB). The retry control unit 15 has a function of retrying transmission when a transmission error occurs. The message transmission unit 16 becomes the core of the control in the transmitter 10 and controls the process of transmitting the message to the crossbar network 1.

The message transmission buffer (MSB) 17 is a buffer composed of two 64-byte buffers, each of which stores a message that has received a transmission request. This buffer is managed by the buffer control unit 14. And the network control unit 18 controls the output port connected to the crossbar network (1). The packet transmission unit 19 is a unit for transmitting messages in packet units to the crossbar network 1. Message Send Buffer Control Register (MCR) MSA Control Register (MCR) 20a is used to indicate or control the status of the message send buffer 17, and Send Status Register (SSR) 20 stores transmission error information. do.

4 is a structural diagram of software emulation of the transmitter hardware operation of the crossbar network router board (XNIF) emulator 8 of FIG. In order to send a message to the crossbar network (1), the crossbar network router board head message (Xnifhead, 21) and the crossbar network router board which are the actual messages are provided. You must configure the crossbar network router message with a body message (Xnifbody, 22). And allocate data structures 23, 24 and 25 for the message transmission buffer 17, the message transmission buffer control register MCR 20a and the transmission status register SSR 20b of FIG. Here, a program corresponding to a circuit for operating hardware of the transmitter 10 is implemented as a thread in consideration of hardware operating characteristics.

The thread refers to a program unit that is sent to a CPU and executed in a multiple programming system in smaller units than a process or task. The first thread 26 has the function of the buffer control unit 14 of FIG. When the kernel writes to the uppermost buffer 27 of the message sending buffer 17 to send a message, the first thread 26 moves the message to an appropriate position according to the message amount of the message sending buffer 17. (28) to wait for transmission. If the transmission is possible, the first thread 26 commands 29 to transmit the message. The second thread 30 has a function of transmitting the message 31 at the lowest level of the message transmission buffer 17 to the receiving node via the Ethernet 6. At this time, the messages stored in the message transmission buffer 17 are crossbar network interface messages 21 and 22. Therefore, the actual transmission must be converted to Ethernet message 33. This is because the emulator-implemented system is an Ethernet-connected system. After completing the message conversion and transmission in this way, the second thread 30 notifies the completion of the message transmission 34. When the transmission is completed, the first thread 26 removes the lowest message 31 of the message transmission buffer 17 and moves other messages one step at a time to continue transmission.

5 is a flowchart of the function of the first thread 26 of FIG. The first thread 26 waits for a write and read request to the message transmission buffer MSB 17 while the kernel is initialized (S1). Write and read requests to the message send buffer 17 are passed through the message send buffer control register 20a. Upon receiving this request, the first thread 26 starts execution to check what request (S2). If a write request is received, since the kernel has already completed writing the message to the top buffer 27 of the message send buffer 17, the write request is cleared in the message send buffer control register (MCR) 20a (S3), and the corresponding message is cleared. The message is moved to the correct position according to the state of the transmission buffer MSB 17 (S4). After that, it is checked whether message transmission is possible (S5). If it is possible to send a message (or request) S6 to the second thread 30 to send a message, otherwise it transitions to the waiting state S1 to receive another request. When the completion of the transmission is notified, the message 31 in the lowest buffer of the message transmission buffer 17 must be removed. This is done with a read request. When the read request occurs in the above (S2), it is first examined whether there is a transmission error (S7). If a transmission error occurs, transmission error information is removed from the transmission status register (SSR) 20b (S8). However, if there is no transmission error, the read request is immediately cleared in the message transmission buffer control register (MCR) 20a (S9). Then, the message is removed by moving the message according to the state of the message transmission buffer 17 step by step (S10). After the message is removed, if a message exists (S11), a message transmission request is requested (S6), otherwise it transitions to a waiting state S1 for another request.

6 is a flowchart of the function of the second thread 30 of FIG. The second thread 30 is in a waiting state S12 until a transmission request comes from the first thread 26 at kernel initialization. When a transmission request is generated, it is selected where the message to be transmitted is located and which message transmission buffer (MSB) 17 is to be transmitted (S13). The crossbar network router board message is read from the selected message transmission buffer 17 (S14). From the read message, information such as a receiver and a message size necessary for transmission to Ethernet is extracted (S15). The crossbar network router board messages 21 and 22 are converted into Ethernet messages (S16). After the preparation operation for transmitting the message over Ethernet, the message is transmitted (S17). After the transmission, it is checked whether there is a transmission error (S18) and if there is an error, it is recorded (S19) in the transmission status register (SSR) 20b so that the kernel transmitter can recognize the error. The sender is notified of the completion of the transmission (S20), and transitions to the waiting state (S12) to receive another transmission request.

5 and 6 are performed in parallel so that the message transmission request can be received even during the message transmission.

The present invention as described above has the effect that the message transmission kernel based on the crossbar network can be used in the system of the Ethernet environment.

Claims (7)

A crossbar network router board emulator is placed in the kernel to use a kernel for transmitting messages across the crossbar network between nodes including a crossbar network router board in a high-speed parallel computer. A message transmission buffer (MSB) to store, a message transmission buffer control register (MCR) used to indicate or control the status of the message transmission buffer, and a transmission status register (SSR) to store transmission error information, A method for emulating a function of transmitting a message to the Ethernet without the crossbar network router board by a first thread receiving a message transmission request associated with the MSB, MCR, and SSR and a second thread transmitting a message, The kernel is linked to the MSB by the first thread. A first process of storing and transmitting a Bar Network Router Board (XNIF) message; and a second thread converting a message transmitted from the first thread of the first process into an Ethernet message and notifying completion of transmission by a second thread. A software emulation method for a sender of a crossbar network router in a high speed parallel computer, comprising two steps, wherein a node transmitting a message for the crossbar network is used in an Ethernet connected node without a crossbar network router board. The software emulation method of claim 1, wherein the first process and the second process are performed in parallel to receive a message transmission request even during the transmission of the message. The method of claim 1, wherein the first process comprises: a first step of checking whether a read and write request is received while waiting for a request for the MSB delivered through the MCR; And a second step of requesting the second thread to transmit a message, and a third step of requesting the second thread to transmit a message in the case of a read request according to the investigation of the first step. Software emulation method for transmitting part of crossbar network router in high speed parallel computer. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the second step comprises: a write request clearing step of clearing a write request in the MCR when the write request is examined by the first step; A message moving step of moving a message, a sending step of checking whether the message can be transmitted after the moving of the message, and a request for sending a message to the second thread if the message can be sent according to the sending check Software emulation method for a transmitter of a crossbar network router in a high-speed parallel computer characterized in that the request step. The method of claim 1 or 3, wherein the third step comprises: a transmission error occurrence investigation step of investigating whether a transmission error has occurred in the case of a read request by the investigation of the first step; An error information removing step of removing transmission error information from the SSR if generated, a read request clearing step of clearing a read request from the MCR after the transmission step has no transmission error and after removing the transmission error information; A message removal step of moving and removing a message according to the MSB state after the read request is cleared, a message existence judging step of determining whether a message exists after removing the message, and if the message exists, to the second thread. A crossbar network in a high-speed parallel computer characterized by comprising a transmission request step for requesting to transmit a message. Software emulation method for the transmission of the emitter. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the message removing step removes the message in the lowest buffer of the MSB. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second process comprises steps 1-1 where a second thread waits to receive a transmission request during kernel initialization in the first thread of the first process, and when the transmission request is generated, Step 2-1 of selecting a buffer having a message to be transmitted, step 3-1 of reading a crossbar network router board message from the selected MSB, and extracting information to be transmitted to Ethernet from the read message; Step 4-1 of converting a crossbar network router board message to an Ethernet message and then transmitting it to Ethernet; Step 5-1 of investigating whether a transmission error has occurred after transmitting the Ethernet message; Step 6-1 of writing the transmission error to the SSR so that the kernel transmitter can recognize the error if it occurs, and if the Ethernet message transmission error has not occurred, the transmission is completed. Software emulation method for the transmission of the network route from the cross bar Parallel Computer, characterized in that step consisting of 7-1 notifies the transmission kernel.