Interconnect performance evaluation of SGI altix 3700 BX2, cray X1, cray opteron cluster, and dell PowerEdge

• Main Authors: Fatoohi, Rod, Saini, Subhash, Ciotti, Robert
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computer systems organization; Computer systems organization > Dependable and fault-tolerant systems and networks; General and reference; General and reference > Cross-computing tools and techniques; General and reference > Cross-computing tools and techniques > Performance; Networks; Networks > Network performance evaluation; Social and professional topics; Social and professional topics > Professional topics; Social and professional topics > Professional topics > Computing profession; Social and professional topics > Professional topics > Computing profession > Testing, certification and licensing
• DOI: 10.5555/1898699.1898858

We study the performance of inter-process communication on four high-speed multiprocessor systems using a set of communication benchmarks. The goal is to identify certain limiting factors and bottlenecks with the interconnect of these systems as well as to compare these interconnects. We measured network bandwidth using different numbers of communicating processors and communication patterns - such as point-to-point communication, collective communication, and dense communication patterns. The four platforms are: a 512-processor SGI Altix 3700 BX2 shared-memory machine with 3.2 GB/s links; a 64- processor (single-streaming) Cray X1 shared-memory machine with 32 1.6 GB/s links; a 128-processor Cray Opteron cluster using a Myrinet network; and a 1280- node Dell PowerEdge cluster with an InfiniBand network. Our results show the impact of the network bandwidth and topology on the overall performance of each interconnect.