NUMAlink

NUMAlink is a system interconnect developed by SGI for use in its distributed shared memory ccNUMA computer systems. NUMAlink was originally developed by SGI for their Origin 2000 and Onyx2 systems. At the time of these systems' introduction, it was branded as "CrayLink" during SGI's brief ownership of Cray Research.

NUMAlink 2

NUMAlink 2 is the second generation of the interconnect, introduced in 1996 and used in the Onyx visualization systems, the Origin 200 and the Origin 2000 servers and supercomputers. There was no NUMAlink 1, as SGI's engineers deemed the system interconnect used in the Stanford DASH to be the first generation NUMAlink interconnect. The NUMAlink 2 interface was the Hub ASIC. NUMAlink 2 is capable of 1.6 GB/s of peak bandwidth through two 800 MB/s, PECL 400 MHz 16-bit unidirectional links.

NUMAlink 3

NUMAlink 3 is the third generation of the interconnect, introduced in 2000 and used in the Origin 3000 and Altix 3000. NUMAlink 3 is capable of 3.2 GB/s of peak bandwidth through two 1.6 GB/s unidirectional links.

NUMAlink 4

NUMAlink 4 is the fourth generation of the interconnect, introduced in 2004 and used in the Altix 4000. NUMAlink 4 is capable of 6.4 GB/s of peak bandwidth through two 3.2 GB/s unidirectional links.

NUMAlink 5

NUMAlink 5 is the fifth generation of the interconnect, introduced in 2009 and used in the Altix UV series. NUMAlink 5 is capable of 15 GB/s of peak bandwidth through two 7.5 GB/s unidirectional links.^[1]

See also

• Infiniband
• Myrinet
• QsNet
• QuickRing
• Scalable Coherent Interconnect

References

1. ^ "SGI Altix UV". www.sgi.com. Silicon Graphics International. 2009. http://www.sgi.com/pdfs/4185.pdf. Retrieved 2009-11-18. 

• Joseph Heinrich, Origin and Onyx2 Theory of Operations Manual, 007-3439-002, Silicon Graphics.
• SGI NUMAlink White Paper, 3771, March 2005, Silicon Graphics. http://www.sgi.com/pdfs/3771.pdf