Modeling of Buffered Multiple Bus Multiprocessor Systems in a Non-Uniform Traffic Environment

Performance modeling of multiple-bus systems is usually carried out under the assumption of uniform memory reference model. Hot spots arising in multiprocessor systems give rise to non-uniform memory references. I t is known that a hot spot memory reference pattern results i n a significant degradation in the performance of Q buffered multistage interconnection network. The aim of this research is t o study the effect of hot spots on the performance of buffered multiple-bus systems. Analytical models based on Markov chains have been developed to determine the bandwidth of buffered multiple-bus systems in a hot spot memory reference pattern. The models assume that unsuccessful memory requests are queued an the buffers at the memory modules. Furthermore, processors with outstanding requests are not allowed to generate new requests. The model allows a fast and inexpensive method of performance evaluation of a multiple bus system in the case of a hot spot memory reference pattern.