Performance modeling and evaluation of topologies for low-latency SCI systems

This paper presents an analytical performance characterization and topology comparison from a latency perspective for the scalable coherent interface (SCI). Experimental methods are used to determine constituent latency components and verify the results obtained by these analytical models as close approximations of reality. In contrast with simulative models, analytical SCI models are faster to solve, yielding accurate performance estimates very quickly, and thereby broadening the design space that can be explored. Ultimately, the results obtained here serve to identify optimum topology types for a range of system sizes based on the latency performance of common parallel application demands.