PERFORMANCE MODELING AND EVALUATION OF TOPOLOGIES FOR LOW-LATENCY SCI SYSTEMS By DAMIAN MARK GONZALEZ A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE

For my family iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Alan George for giving me the opportunity to gain valuable technical experience at the HCS Lab, and for insisting on high standards. I also wish to thank Matthew Chidester, Kyu-Sang Park (both at the University of Florida) and Håkon Bugge (at Scali Computer AS, Norway) for their timely and valuable assistance throughout the development of this work. Thanks also go to the members of the HCS Lab past and present who have each taught me valuable lessons along the way, and helped make the experience worthwhile.