A performance evaluation of the multiprocessor testbed ATTEMPT-0

ATTEMPT-0 is a bus connected multiprocessor testbed which provides both the shared memory and the local memory for each processor. In this paper, we describe the design policy and organization of machine and discuss on the performance measurement results using five practical parallel applications. Processors share a global shared memory through the Futurebus. A write-through type snoop cache, a local memory and a special synchronization mechanism synchronizer are provided for each processor. The evaluation result demonstrates the efficiency of the cooperated system with the local memory, the synchronizer and the global shared memory. By using the local memory, performance is improved 10 to 60% compared with the case of only the shared memory is used. Meanwhile, through the performance analysis of the Futurebus, we found some problems in the arbitration protocol.