FINE-GRAINED PARALLEL SUPERCOMPUTER

OUR OBJECTIVE IS TO DEVELOP A BILLION-SITE CELLULAR AUTOMATA MACHINE OPTIMIZED FOR LATTICE-GAS SIMULATION OF GEOPHYSICAL PROCESSES. THIS MACHINE WILL BE A MEDIUM-SCALE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MARGOLUS CAM-8 ARCHITECTURE, DEVELOPED AT THE MIT LABORATORY FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE WITH SUBSTANTIAL DARPA FUNDING. A NUMBER OF SMALLER CAM-8 ARE ALREADY IN USE AT MIT AND COLLABORATING INSTITUTIONS. CAM-8 IS A VERY FINE-GRAINED, PARALLEL, UNIFROM, SCALABLE MULTIPROCESSOR ARCHITECTURE EXPLICITLY AIMED AT THE FINE-GRAINED MODELING OF SPATIALLY-EXTENDED SYSTEMS. IT IS MEANT TO COMPLEMENT, RATHER THAN DISPLACE, MORE TRADITIONAL MODELING APPROACHES, AND IS IDEALLY SUITED FOR LATTICE-GAS MODELS OF PHYSICAL PROCESSES. THE CURRENT MODULAR DESIGN CAN BE DIRECTLY USED FOR A CAM-8 UNIT OF A BILLION SITES. OUR DEVELOPMENT EFFORT WILL FOCUS ON SIZE-RELATED IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES (RELIABLE INTERCONNECTION OF A LARGE NUMBER OF MODULES, ADEQUATE COOLING, HIGH-SPEED I/O); MANUFACTURING, ASSEMBLY, AND TESTING; SYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS SOFTWARE; DOCUMENTATION. PHASE I WILL DELIVER COMPLETE BUILDING PLANS (VLSI CHIPS, SCHEMATICS, BOARD ARTWORK, HARDWARE MANUALS) FOR A GIGA-SITE UNIT, BASIC SYSTEMS SOFTWARE, AND AN OUTLINE OF ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE. IT WILL ALSO PROVIDE A DEMONSTRATION OF MULTI-MODULE INTERCONNECTION (256 MEGA-SITES) AND OF VISUALIZATION TECHNIQUES. PHASE II WILL CARRY OUT THE PLANS, WITH MODIFICATIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS SUBJECT TO NEGOTIATION.