| 摘要 |
A data processing system includes a plurality of nodes, which each contain at least one agent, and data storage accessible to agents within the nodes. The plurality of nodes are coupled by a non-hierarchical interconnect including multiple non-blocking uni-directional address channels and at least one uni-directional data channel. The agents, which are each coupled to and snoop transactions on all of the plurality of address channels, can only issue transactions on an associated address channel. The uni-directional channels employed by the present non-hierarchical interconnect architecture permit high frequency pumped operation not possible with conventional bi-directional shared system buses. In addition, access latencies to remote (cache or main) memory incurred following local cache misses are greatly reduced as compared with conventional hierarchical systems because of the absence of inter-level (e.g., bus acquisition) communication latency. The non-hierarchical interconnect architecture also permits design flexibility in that the segment of the interconnect within each node can be independently implemented by a set of buses or as a switch, depending upon cost and performance considerations.
|
