Rationale and Strategy for a 21st Century Scientific Computing Architecture: the Case for Using Commercial Symmetric Multiprocessors as Supercomputers

This paper presents arguments supporting the thesis that clusters of SMPs interconnected with general purpose networks (perhaps several different networks to support both low-latency and bulk data transfers) are the architecture that will provide scalable high-performance computing environments. The paper presents an analysis of the high performance computing environment based on the state of technology in early 1996. The evolution of the technology base since that time has only strengthened that author’s opinion that this architecture will be successful.