Mesh-of-Tori: A Novel Interconnection Network for Frontal Plane Cellular Processors

Abstract

In this paper we propose a novel “Mesh-of-Tori” cellular interconnection network for scalable and massively parallel array processors with frontal plane I/O. The unit (called “m-Cell”) in this topology is the smallest double (for 2D case) or triple (for 3D) folded torus, which forms the basic ‘tile’. The Cells can be repeated and “fused” to form macro-Cells, or “divided” to form smaller Cells, without destroying the homogeneity of the entire structure, to give a highly scalable and cellular “Mesh-of-Tori” topology. The key features of the proposed interconnection network are (1) an excellent up and down scalability due to regularity and modularity, (2) no end-around connections, and (3) capability to map 2D streaming data from frontal plane I/O (stacked layer of sensors) to the processing elements. We also provide solutions for stream data manipulation through frontal plane I/O, on the propose d cellular topology.