KR0171038B1 - Software emulation method of cross bar network router of high speed parallel computer - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a software emulation method for a receiver of a crossbar network router in a high speed parallel computer, and solves a problem in which a message receiving kernel for a conventional crossbar network (Xcent-Net) was available only in a system having a crossbar network router board. To this end, the present invention provides a first process of converting an Ethernet message received from Ethernet by a first thread into a crossbar network router board message and storing the message in an empty buffer and then notifying the reception of the message. After the message is notified to the kernel receiver by the second thread, the kernel receiver performs the second process of removing the messages in the buffer when the kernel receiver finishes receiving the message. Therefore, even in an Ethernet-connected system without a crossbar network router board, the crossbar network is connected to the kernel receiver. Receive messages about It is the one to use.

Description

Software Emulation Method for Receiving Part of Crossbar Network Router 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 flow chart of processing a received message in accordance with the present invention.

6 is a flow chart for managing messages processed in FIG. 5 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 (XNIF) Emulator

9: PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus

10: Sender (SNI: Send Network Interface)

11: Receive Network Interface (RNI)

12: packet receiver 13: message receiver

14: Message Receive Buffer (or MRB)

15: Message Receive Buffer Control Register (or MRR)

16: temporary data buffer (or TDB)

17: Temporary Data Buffer (TDB) Address Register (or TAR)

18: Temporary Data Buffer (TDB) Flag Register (or TFR)

19,31a: Crossbar Network Router Board Head (Xnifhead) Messages

20,31b: Crossbar network router board body (Xnifhead) messages

21: MRB data structure 22: MRR data structure

23: TDB data structure 24: TFR data structure

25: TAR data structure 26: 1st thread

27: Ethernet message 28: Second thread

31: Crossbar Network Router Board (XNIF) Messages

The present invention relates to a software emulation method for a receiver 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 receiver function in software on a router board of a network. The receiver of such a crossbar network router board is a hardware part that is a network interface that delivers a message received from the crossbar network to a processor.

A high-speed parallel computer is composed of a processor and a memory building, in which nodes 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 receiving 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 receiving kernel for a crossbar network may 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 receiver 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 receiving 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 include a crossbar network router board emulator in the kernel to use a kernel for receiving messages across the crossbar network between nodes including a crossbar network router board in a high speed parallel computer, A message reception buffer (MRB) that stores the received message inside the emulator and manages it until the message is received by the kernel receiver, controls the message reception buffer (MRB), and requests the message to be removed when the kernel receiver receives the message. A message reception buffer control register (MRR), and a temporary data buffer (TDB) for temporarily storing a large amount of received messages, wherein the MRB, MRR, and TDB receive a first thread and a received message. Emulate the ability to receive messages by a second thread that handles A method comprising: converting an Ethernet message received from the Ethernet by the first thread into a crossbar network router board message and storing it in an empty buffer and then notifying the reception of the message; and a message notified from the first process. After the kernel thread is informed to the kernel receiver by the second thread, when the kernel receiver completes receiving the message, the second process removes the messages in the corresponding buffer, and the message about the crossbar network is used even in an Ethernet-connected system without the crossbar network router board. There is a feature that allows the receiving kernel to be used.

The first process and the second process are performed in parallel to simultaneously process message reception and message management.

The first process includes converting a received Ethernet message into a crossbar network router board message, and then checking whether there is an empty buffer of the MRB for storage, and checking the empty buffer of the MRB by examining the first step. If there is a second step of storing the data portion and the remaining received information of the received Ethernet message in the TDB and the MRB, respectively, and if the message stored in the MRB in the second step is a message of the first buffer, the message reception There is a feature that includes a third step of notification.

The second process may include: a first step of waiting for a message reception notification from the first process; and generating a message reception interrupt so that the kernel reception unit reads a message when the message reception notification is a message reception request in the first step; In the second step, and in the first step, when the message reception notification is a message removal request by the kernel receiver, removing the message from the MRB, and generating a message reception interrupt when the message exists in the MRB after removing the message. Features include three steps. The message removal request is generated after the kernel receiver receives the message reception interrupt.

In other words, the method of the present invention is a method of emulating the crossbar network interface receiving unit structure and function analysis 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 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).

In the present invention, since the emulation method for the receiver 11 of the crossbar network router board, only the receiver (RNI) function will be described.

The packet receiver 12 receives data and checks for errors in accordance with the transmission protocol of the crossbar network 1.

The message receiver 13 has a function of storing and managing data received from the packet receiver 12 in a receiver internal buffer or a local memory to be described later.

In addition, the Message Receive Buffer (MRB, 14) is a buffer where four buffers of 64 bytes each are stored in four pairs, and stores a small amount of messages received from the kernel receiver until they receive messages. .

The message reception buffer control register (MRB control register, hereinafter referred to as MRR, 15) is a register required to control the MRB 14, and is used to request message removal through this register when a message is received at the kernel receiver.

The Temporary Data Buffer (TDB) 16 is a place for temporarily storing a large amount of received messages, and is allocated to the local memory 4. The start address of the TDB 16 is located in a temporary data buffer address register (hereinafter, referred to as TAR, 17) of the receiving unit 11. This address is set at system initialization. In addition, the state of the TDB 16 is managed by a temporary data buffer flag register (hereinafter referred to as TFR, 18) of the receiving unit 11.

4 is a structural diagram of software emulation of the receiver hardware operation of the crossbar network router board (XNIF) emulator 8 of FIG. Since the transmitting unit 10 of the emulator transmits a virtual cross network, the Ethernet message 27 actually received in the system structure of FIG. 2 includes a transmission scheme, a receiving node, a message length, and a transmission for the crossbar network. A crossbar network router board head (Xnifhead) 19 having node information and a crossbar network router board body (Xnifbody) 20, which is a substantial message, are received from the Ethernet 6. And allocate data structures 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25 for hardware resources of the MRB 14, MRR 15, TDB 16, TAR 17, and TFR 18 of FIG. .

The program corresponding to the circuit for operating the hardware of the receiver 11 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. Accordingly, in the present invention, the first thread and the second thread are used, and their functions are as follows.

The first thread 26 converts the Ethernet message 27 received from the Ethernet 6 into a message of the crossbar network router board head (Xnifhead) 19 and the crossbar network router board body (Xnifbody) 20. In order to store the converted contents, an empty buffer of the MRB 21 and the TDB 23 is found, and each is stored in the empty buffer. When the storage is completed, the first thread 26 notifies the second thread 28 of receiving the message 29.

The second thread 28 informs the kernel receiving unit 11 of the received message, and when the message receiving 30 is completed in the kernel, the second thread 28 removes the contents of the corresponding buffer. After removal, repeat this operation if other messages exist.

The parallel execution of the first thread 26 and the second thread 28 has a structure capable of simultaneously processing the message reception and message management.

5 is a flowchart of the function of the first thread 26 of FIG. The first thread 26 starts performing when the Ethernet message 27 is received from the Ethernet 6 (S1). Since the present invention is carried out in the system structure of FIG. 2, the received Ethernet message 27 is received by the crossbar network router board head 19 and the crossbar network router which can be recognized by the receiving unit 11 of the crossbar network router board emulator 8. A crossbar network router board message composed of the board body 20 is converted (S2). A buffer is selected to store this converted message. First, an empty buffer is selected in the MRB 14 having four pairs of buffers (S3). The MRB 14 checks whether there is an empty buffer (Full) (S4), and if there is no empty buffer, execution is suspended (standby) until an empty buffer exists in the MRB (S5). However, if there is an empty buffer in the MRB 14, i.e., if a buffer is obtained from the MRB, it is checked whether the received message is a data message (S6). Because data messages are accompanied by large messages, they are intended to be assigned the TDB 16. If the received message is a data message, the TDB selects an empty buffer (S7). At this time, the TDB checks whether there is an empty buffer (S8), and if there is no empty buffer, execution is also suspended (waited) until an empty buffer is created in the TDB (S9). However, if there is an empty buffer in the TDB, that is, a buffer is obtained, the crossbar network router board body (Xnifbody, 20) message portion, which is a data portion of the received Ethernet message, is stored (recorded) in the selected TDB (S10). The crossbar network router board head (Xnifhead) 19 including the reception information transmitted from the remaining transmitter is stored in the already selected MRB 14 (S11). It is determined whether the message of the selected MRB 14 is the message of the first buffer in the corresponding MRB 14 (S12). If the message is the first buffer, that is, the message can be immediately transmitted to the kernel receiver, the message reception is canceled. The two threads 28 are notified (S13).

6 is a flowchart of the function of the second thread 28 of FIG. The second thread 28 is generated when the kernel is initialized and exists in a standby state. When the second thread 28 completes the message reception notification 29 or the message receiving unit 30 at the kernel receiving unit, the execution resumes. Therefore, it waits for message reception and message removal request upon initialization (S14). In this way, the system continuously searches whether the message reception request and the message removal request are received during the waiting (S15). When a message reception request is generated from the first thread 26 by this search, the second thread 28 generates a message reception interrupt so that the kernel receiver reads the message (S16). Otherwise, if a message removal request is generated from the kernel receiver by the search (S15), it is checked whether the type of the message is a data message (S17). This message removal request must occur after the kernel receiver receives the message receive interrupt. When the type of the message is a data message, since the TDB 23 is already used in the first thread 26, the message is removed from the TDB (S18) and returned (S19). And if there is a thread waiting to use the TDB (23) processes the use request (S20). If the message is processed as described above (S20) and the type of the message is not a data message (S17), there is a crossbar network router board head (Xnifhead) 31a having transmission information of the crossbar network in any kind of message. Therefore, the second thread 28 should remove the message from the MRB 14 (S21), and clear the message removal request from the MRR 15 (S22). This is because the kernel receiver records the removal request in the MRR 15 when the message removal request is made. After removing the message, it is checked whether a message exists in the corresponding MRB 14 (S23). If the message does not exist by this check S23, it transitions to the waiting state S14 for another request processing. However, if there is a message, the message is moved up by one step (S24) to generate a message reception interrupt (S25), and transition to the waiting state (S14).

As described above, the present invention has an effect of enabling a message receiving kernel based on a crossbar network to be used in a system of an Ethernet environment.

Claims (9)

In order to use a kernel that receives messages through a crossbar network between nodes including a crossbar network router board in a high-speed parallel computer, a crossbar network router board emulator is placed in the kernel, and the receiver side of the emulator stores a received message. Message Receive Buffer (MRB), which manages until the message is received by the Kernel Receiver; And a temporary data buffer (TDB) for temporarily storing the received mass of messages, wherein the MRB, MRR, and TDB receive messages by a first thread receiving an Ethernet message and a second thread processing the received message. A method for emulating a function, wherein the first thread Converting the Ethernet message received from the net into a crossbar network router board message and storing it in an empty buffer and notifying the reception of the message; and informing the kernel receiver by the second thread of the message notified from the first process. After completing the message reception at the kernel receiving unit, a second process of removing the messages in the buffer is performed, so that the message receiving kernel for the crossbar network can be used in an Ethernet connected system without the crossbar network router board. Software emulation method for the receiver of a crossbar network router in a high-speed parallel computer. The method of claim 1, wherein the first process and the second process are performed in parallel to simultaneously process message reception and message management. The software emulation method of claim 1, wherein the second process is repeatedly performed when another message exists in the buffer after removing the message. The method of claim 1, wherein the first process comprises: converting a received Ethernet message into a crossbar network router board message, and then examining whether there is an empty buffer of the MRB for storing; And if there is an empty buffer of the MRB, storing the data portion of the received Ethernet message and the remaining received information in the TDB and the MRB, respectively; and in the second step, the message stored in the MRB is the message of the first buffer. The software emulation method for a receiver of a crossbar network router in a high speed parallel computer, characterized in that the third step of notifying the reception of the message. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second step comprises a step 2-1 of checking whether the received message stored in the MRB is a data message in the first step and a data message according to the investigation of step 2-1. Steps 2-2 of selecting an empty buffer in the TDB; steps 2-3 of checking whether there is an empty buffer in the selected TDB; and if there is an empty buffer by examining the steps of 2-3. 2 to 4 steps of recording the data portion of the received message in the selected TDB and 2-5 steps of storing the remaining received information of the received message in the already selected MRB. Software emulation method for the receiver of a crossbar network router on a computer. The method of claim 1, wherein the second process comprises: a first step of waiting for a message reception notification from the first process; and in the first step, the kernel reception unit reads a message if the message reception notification is a message reception request; A second step of generating a message receiving interrupt so that the message is received from the MRB when the message receiving notification is a message removal request by the kernel receiving unit; and a message is present in the MRB after the message is removed. A software emulation method for a receiver of a crossbar network router in a high speed parallel computer, comprising a third step of generating a receive interrupt. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the message removal request of the third step occurs after a kernel receiver receives a message receive interrupt. 7. The method of claim 1 or 6, wherein the third step comprises steps 3-1 of checking whether the received message is a data message when the message removal request is performed in the first step, and the investigation of step 3-1. In the case of the data message, step 3-2 of processing the use request for the TDB after removing and returning the message from the TDB, and after the processing of the step 3-2 and the investigation of the step 3-1 In step 3-3, if the MRB removes the crossbar network router board message having the crossbar network transmission information, and clears the message removal request in the MRR after removing the message in step 3-3. Steps 3-4, and after clearing the message removal request in steps 3-4, steps 3-5 for checking whether there is a message in the corresponding MRB, and if a message exists due to the investigation in steps 3-5. The message By software emulation method for the reception of high-speed crossbar network in a parallel computer, a router according to claim 3-6, consisting of generating an interrupt message is received the mobile. The software emulation method of claim 8, wherein the steps 3-6 move the message upward when the message exists.