Merlin Components for Real-Time, Fault-Tolerant, Distributed Computing

SYSTRAN proposes research into a new approach to very high-speed, heterogenous computer interconnection environments. This memory-based interconnection system would be able to provide extremely high-performance in distributed multicomputer environments which are directly applicable to the National Critical Technologies Information and Communications subtopic: 'high-performance computing and networking.' While other fast-link interconnection systems remain burdened by protocol overhead, MERLIN (MEmory Routed, Logical Interconnection Network) achieves rapid response and reconfiguration through memory-based interconnections. The memory-based approach discussed in this proposal achieves its very high performance by absolutely minimizing the overhead due to protocol handling and by permitting a two-level overlap of computation and communication. This technique will provide optimal performance for intertask communication in distributed multicomputer systems, particularly where real-time or parallel computing capability is required.