The SGI Origin: a ccNUMA highly scalable server

• Main Authors: Laudon, James, Lenoski, Daniel
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied computing > Computers in other domains > Personal computers and PC applications > Microcomputers; Bandwidth; Coherence; Computer systems organization > Architectures > Parallel architectures > Multiple instruction, multiple data; Computer systems organization > Dependable and fault-tolerant systems and networks; Costs; Delay; General and reference > Cross-computing tools and techniques > Evaluation; General and reference > Cross-computing tools and techniques > Metrics; General and reference > Cross-computing tools and techniques > Performance; Graphics; Hardware > Integrated circuits > Semiconductor memory; Manufacturing; Networks > Network performance evaluation; Networks > Network properties > Network structure; Networks > Network protocols; Permission; Power system modeling; Scalability; Silicon
• ISSN: 1063-6897; 0163-5964; 2575-713X
• DOI: 10.1145/264107.264206

The SGI Origin 2000 is a cache-coherent non-uniform memory access (ccNUMA) multiprocessor designed and manufactured by Silicon Graphics, Inc. The Origin system was designed from the ground up as a multiprocessor capable of scaling to both small and large processor counts without any bandwidth, latency, or cost cliffs. The Origin system consists of up to 512 nodes interconnected by a scalable Craylink network. Each node consists of one or two R10000 processors, up to 4 GB of coherent memory, and a connection to a portion of the XIO IO subsystem. This paper discusses the motivation for building the Origin 2000 and then describes its architecture and implementation. In addition, performance results are presented for the NAS Parallel Benchmarks V2.2 and the SPLASH2 applications. Finally, the Origin system is compared to other contemporary commercial ccNUMA systems.