Multiprocessor system with vector pipelines

MULTIPROCESSOR SYSTEM WITH VECTOR PIPELINES

0001This invention relates to a multiprocessor system which is capable of processing information at high speed.

0002Since a super computer system has been manufactured by Cray Research Inc, Minn, U.S.A. and sold in the name of Cray-1 from 1978, strong demand has occurred so as to carry out scientific calculations at high speed.

0003Under the circumstances, a recent requirement is directed to a computer system which can process not only a great number of vector elements at high speed but also a great deal of jobs.

0004In order to satisfy such a requirement, a computer system has been proposed which comprises a plurality of vector calculation units specific to a vector calculation and an instruction control unit for controlling the vector calculation units. The computer system can certainly execute the vector calculation at a high speed by using the plurality of the vector calculation units and is very effective to process the great deal of the vector elements at a high speed. However, the computer system mentioned above is not always suitable for processing a great deal of jobs because such jobs are not restricted to the vector calculation alone and any other processing can not be executed during the vector calculation.

0005On the other hand, a wide variety of computer systems have been proposed each of which comprises a plurality of processors and which may be collectively called multiprocessor systems. Such multiprocessor systems can quickly process a great deal of jobs and can therefore improve throughput. Herein, it is usual that each processor in such a multiprocessor system is similar in structure and operation to one another and comprises a single vector calculation unit in addition to a processing unit for a scalar calculation and an address calculation. This shows that each processor itself can not process a great number of vector elements at a high speed and consequently inevitably takes a long time for the vector calculation. Therefore, each processor is not suitable for carrying out the vector calculation of a great number of vector elements. This means that the conventional multiprocessor systems can not flexibly assign the jobs to the plurality of the processors.

0006At any rate, all of conventional systems as mentioned above does not completely satisfy the recent requirement because both a great number of vector elements and a great deal of jobs can not be flexibly processed in the conventional systems.

0007US-A-4,685,076 describes a vector processor with plural vector registers, plural vector arithmetic units, and data transfer circuits.

0008It is an object of this invention to provide a multiprocessor system which is capable of processing both a great number of vector elements and a great deal of jobs at a very high speed and, which is capable of flexibly assigning jobs to the processors. This object is solved with the features of the claims.

0009A multiprocessor system to which this invention is applicable comprises a plurality of processors and a main memory common to the plurality of the processors. Each of the processors comprises at least one vector calculation unit specific to a vector calculation and comprises access control means coupled to the vector calculation units in the processors, respectively, and the main memory for individually controlling the vector calculation units in the processors to independently make the vector calculation units access the main memory. <ul id="ul0001" list-style="none" compact="compact"><li>Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a multiprocessor computer system according to a preferred embodiment of this invention;</li><li>Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a processor for use in the multiprocessor computer system illustrated in Fig. 1;</li><li>Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a memory access controller for use in the multiprocessor system illustrated in Fig. 1; and</li><li>Fig. 4 is a block diagram of another processor applicable to the multiprocessor system illustrated in Fig. 1.</li></ul>

0010Referring to Fig. 1, a multiprocessor system according to a preferred embodiment of this invention comprises a couple of processors 11 and 12 which may be called first and second processors, respectively, a memory access controller 13 common to the first and the second processors 11 and 12, and a main memory 14 connected to the memory access controller 13. It is to be noted that the first and the second processors 11 and 12 may not always be identical with each other, although description will be made on the assumption that the first and the second processors 11 and 12 are identical with each other.

0011In Fig. 1, the first processor 11 is connected to the memory access controller 13 through a first request path 111, a first storage data path 112, and a first load data path 113. Likewise, the second processor 12 is connected to the memory access controller 13 through a second request path 121, a second storage data path 122, and a second load data path 123.

0012The first and the second request paths 111 and 121 are fcr transmitting request information signals from the first and the second processors 11 and 12 to the memory access controller 13 or from the memory access controller 13 to the first and the second processors 11 and 12. The first and the second storage data paths 112 and 122 are used to transfer storage data signals from the first and the second processors 11 and 12 to the memory access controller 13, respectively. In addition, the first and the second load data paths 113 and 123 are used to transfer load or readout data signals from the memory access controller 13 to the first and the second processors 11 and 12, respectively.

0013On the other hand, the memory access controller 13 is connected to the main memory 14 through a controller request path 131, a controller storage data path 132, and a controller load data path 133. The controller request path 131 serves to transfer a request information signal between the memory access controller 13 and the main memory 14 while the controller storage data path 132 and the controller load data path 133 serve to transfer the storage data signals from the memory access controller 13 to the main memory 14 and to transfer the load data signals from the main memory 14 to the memory access controller 13, respectively.

0014Referring to Fig. 2 together with Fig. 1, a processor illustrated in Fig. 2 may be either the first processor 11 or the second processor 12 and is assumed to be at first used as the first processor 11. In the example being illustrated, the processor comprises an instruction control unit 16 and four vector calculation units 21, 22, 23, and 24 which will be referred to as first, second, third, and fourth vector calculation units, respectively, and which are specific to the vector calculations. In addition, the illustrated instruction control unit 16 comprises a processing unit 26 which carries out a scalar calculation and calculations other than the vector calculations. The other calculations may be, for example, address calculations.

0015The first through fourth vector calculation units 21 to 24 are connected to the memory access controller 13 through first to fourth storage lines 112-1 to 112-4 and through first to fourth load lines 113-1 to 113-4. The first through the fourth storage lines 112-1 to 112-4 collectively form the first storage path 112 while the first through the fourth load lines 113-1 to 113-4 collectively form the first load path 113. On the other hand, the first instruction control unit 16 is connected to the memory access controller 13 through a request transmission line 111-1 and a request reception line 111-2 both of which may be collectively called the first request path 111.

0016In the illustrated example, the second processor 12 is assumed to be identical with the first processor 11, as mentioned before. When the illustrated processor is used as the second processor 12, the first through the fourth storage lines of the second storage data path 122 may be reread as 122-1, 122-2, 122-3, and 122-4 of the second storage data path 122, respectively, as shown in parentheses. Likewise, the first through the fourth load lines of the second load data path 123 reread as 123-1, 123-2, 123-3, and 123-4, respectively, while the request transmission line and the request reception line of the second request path 121 are depicted at 121-1 and 121-2, respectively.

0017In addition, each instruction control unit 16 of the first and the second processors 11 and 12 comprises a register 31 for monitoring states of the vector calculation units 21 to 24 in each of the first and the second processors 11 and 12, respectively. More specifically, the register 31 is set through a scan path line (not shown) which is used, for example, on diagnosing a fault. In this connection, contents of the register 31 are representative of the number of the vector calculation units available in each of the first and the second processors 11 and 12. In other words, the contents of the register 31 are representative of configuration of the available vector calculation units and are produced as a configuration signal. Therefore, the register 31 has four bits arranged from a most significant bit to a least significant bit corresponding to the first through the fourth vector calculation units 21 to 24, respectively. For example, when the first through the fourth vector calculation units 21 to 24 are available, the register 31 is set into "1111" when a logic "1" level and a logic "0" level represent an available state of each vector calculation unit and an unavailable state, respectively. If the first vector calculation unit 21 alone is available while the other vector calculation units 22 to 24 are unavailable due to occurrence of faults or the like, the first register 31 is set into "1000". Thus, the contents of the first register 31 take a state selected from seven states of "1000", "1100", "0011", "1000", "0100", "0010", and "0001".

0018In Fig. 2, the first through the fourth vector calculation units 21 to 24 are operable in parallel to one another by forming pipelines for the vector calculations. For this purpose, each of the first through the fourth vector calculation units 21 to 24 comprises a group of vector registers for holding a plurality of vector elements and a set of pipelines for calculating addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, logic operation, and shift operation, as known in the art. Vector elements are successively assigned or allocated to each of the first through the fourth vector calculation units 21 to 24 that is put into an available state in a predetermined order, for example, an ascending order. Such allocation of the vector elements to the first through the fourth vector calculation units 21 to 24 is carried out by dividing numbers assigned to the respective vector elements by the number of the vector calculation units 21 to 24 to obtain residues and by successively assigning the vector elements specified by the residues to the vector calculation units 21 to 24.

0019Let the processor illustrated in Fig. 2 be used as the first processor 11. The storage data signals are sent from the first through the fourth vector calculation units 21 to 24 to the memory access controller 13 through the first to the fourth storage lines 112-1 to 112-4 while the load data signals are sent from the memory access controller 13 to the first through the fourth vector calculation units 21 to 24 through the first to the fourth load lines 113-1 to 113-4, respectively. In addition, the instruction control unit 16 is operable to control decoding and production of each instruction.

0020Decoding a vector calculation instruction, the first instruction control unit 16 (Fig. 2) delivers a vector calculation instruction to the first through the fourth vector calculation units 21 to 24 through a first internal instruction line 36. In this event, the first instruction control unit 16 supplies the memory access controller 13 through the request transmission line 111-1 with the request information signal which includes various kinds of information to be described in detail later. Similar operation is carried out in the second processor 12. In this case, the request information signal is delivered to the memory access controller 13 through the request transmission line 121-1 (shown in parentheses in Fig. 2).

0021When a sequence of vector elements is read out of the main memory 14 as the load or readout data signals after completion of a memory access operation, a reply signal is sent from the memory access controller 13 to the instruction control unit 16 through the request reception line 111-2 or 121-2. When the reply signal is assumed to be supplied to the first processor 11, the instruction control unit 16 delivers a data fetch instruction to the first through the fourth vector calculation units 21 to 24 of the first processor through the first internal instruction line 36. As a result, the vector elements are successively assigned to and fetched as the load data signals into the first through the fourth vector calculation units 21 to 24 in accordance with the contents of the register 31 in the manner mentioned before. Thereafter, the first through the fourth vector calculation units 21 to 24 are processed in parallel to one another in a pipeline fashion. It is to be noted that the vector elements are assigned only to the vector calculation units which are available.

0022Similar operation is carried out in the second processor 12 when the vector elements are read out of the main memory 14 to be sent through the memory access controller 13 to the second processor 12.

0023On the other hand, the scalar calculation and the address calculation are executed in the processing unit 26 of each of the first and the second processors 11 and 12.

0024With this structure, the vector elements are mainly assigned under control of the memory access controller 13 to the first processor 11 or the second processor 12 in consideration of the contents of the register 31 and processed by a selected one of the first and the second processors 11 and 12 that comprises a plurality of the vector calculation units 21 to 24. Therefore, the vector elements can be processed at a high speed. Moreover, the scalar calculation can be processed by the remaining processor while the selected processor processes the vector elements and may be executed independently of the selected processor. Accordingly, a lot of jobs can be flexibly assigned to the processors and be also processed at a high speed in the illustrated multiprocessor system.

0025Referring to Fig. 3, the memory access controller 13 comprises a request controller 51, an address calculator 52, a switching circuit 53, a first alignment controller 54, a first alignment circuit 55, a delay circuit 56, a second alignment controller 57, and a second alignment circuit 58. The request controller 51 is connected to the request transmission lines 111-1 and 121-1 jointed to the instruction control units 16 of the first and the second processors 11 and 12 and controls the address calculator 52, the switching circuit 53, and the first alignment controller 54 through first, second, and third internal connections 61, 62, and 63, respectively. The request controller 51 also controls the delay circuit S6 through the third internal connection 63. At any rate, the request controller 51 serves to arbitrate the request information signals sent from the first and the second processors 11 and 12 in a manner to be described later and may be called an arbitrating circuit.

0026The switching circuit 53 is connected to the first through the fourth storage lines 112-1 to 112-4 (Fig. 2) of the first storage data path 112 extended from the first through the fourth vector calculation units 21 to 24 and is connected to the first through the fourth storage lines 122-1 to 122-4 of the second storage data path 122. The switching circuit 53 is operable to switch the first storage data path 112 and the second storage data path 122 from one to another under control of the request controller 51. Consequently, the storage data signals on the first storage data path lines 112 and the second storage data path are selectively produced from the switching circuit 53.

0027The storage data signals selected by the switching circuit 53 are sent to the first alignment circuit 55 through first through fourth inner lines 66-1 to 66-4 which are collectively depicted at 66 and are delivered to the first alignment circuit 55 controlled by the first alignment controller 54 connected to the request controller 51 through the third internal connection 63. The first alignment circuit 55 assigns the storage data signals to the controller storage path 132 under control of the first alignment controller 54. The illustrated controller storage path 132 is formed by first through fourth controller storage lines 132-1 to 132-4 which are connected to memory ports of the main memory 14.

0028The address calculator 52 is connected to the request controller 51 through the first internal connection 61 and can simultaneously produce four address signals at maximum. The address signals are sent to the main memory 14 through the controller request path 131 which is composed of first through fourth controller request lines 131-1 to 131-4. The request controller 51 also controls the second alignment controller 57 through the delay circuit 56 connected to the first and the second processors 11 and 12 through the request reception lines 111-2 and 121-2, respectively.

0029The second alignment circuit 58 is connected to the main memory 14 through the controller load data path 133 composed of first through fourth controller load lines 133-1 to 133-4 and is connected to the first load data path 113 and the second load data path 123 extended from the first and the second processors 11 and 12. The second alignment circuit 58 serves to selectively deliver the load data signals to the first and the second processors 11 and 12 through the first and the second load data paths 113 and 123 under control of the second alignment controller 57.

0030As readily understood from the above, a combination of the switching circuit 53 and the first and the second alignment circuits 55 and 58 serves to connect the vector calculation units to the main memory 14.

0031In operation, let the first processor 11 supply the request information signal from the instruction controller 16 (Fig. 2) to the memory access controller 13 through the request transmission line 111-1. In this event, it is surmised that the request information signal includes a request, a leading address of the vector elements, the distance between two adjacent vector elements, the number of the vector elements, a command representative of a species of access operations, and the contents of the first register 31 which are held in the instruction control unit 16 and which are representative of the number of the vector calculation units which are available in the first processor 11 and which may be called available vector calculation units.

0032The request controller 51 arbitrates the requests between the first and the second processors 11 and 12 to select either one of the requests as a selected request. Thereafter, the request controller 51 determines a maximum number of vector elements which are simultaneously accessible by the selected request and which may be called simultaneously accessible vector calculation units. In this event, the maximum number of the vector elements is decided by the number of the available vector calculation units. Specifically, when the available vector calculation units are equal in number to four, the maximum number of the simultaneously accessible vector elements is equal to four. Likewise, when the number of the available vector calculation units is equal to two and unity, the maximum numbers of the simultaneously accessible vector elements are equal to two and one, respectively.

0033Inasmuch as the request information signals are individually sent from the respective processors, the request controller 51 correctly calculates the number of the simultaneously accessible vector elements at every request even when the numbers of the vector calculation units in the processors are different from one another.

0034The request controller 51 supplies the address calculator 52 through the first internal connection 61 with the number of the simultaneously accessible vector elements together with the leading address and the distance between two adjacent vector elements. The address calculator 52 calculates addresses of the vector elements on the basis of the leading address, the number of the simultaneously accessible vector elements, and the distance. The addresses calculated by the address calculator 52 are equal in number to the number of the simultaneously accessible vector elements and are sent to the main memory 14 through the controller request lines 131-1 to 131-4 along with the request.

0035Herein, the request is assumed to be a storage request which requests to store data signals from the first processcr 11 to the main memory 14. In addition, it is assumed that first through fourth ones of the storage data signals are sent from the first through the fourth vector calculation units 21 to 24 (Fig. 2) to the switching circuit 53 (Fig. 4). Under the circumstances, the request controller 51 selects the first processor 11 and supplies the switching circuit 53 through the second internal connection 62 with a switching signal indicative of selection of the first through the fourth storage data lines 112-1 to 112-4 of the first processor 11. As a result, the first through the fourth storage data signals are sent from the switching circuit 53 through the four inner lines 66 to the first alignment circuit 55 which is controlled by the first alignment controller 54.

0036The first alignment controller 54 is supplied from the request controller 51 through the third internal connection 63 with the leading address, the distance between two adjacent vector elements, and the number of the available vector calculation units. In other words, the number of the available vector calculation units may be referred to as a configuration signal representative of configuration of the available vector calculation units. Responsive to the leading address, the distance, and the number of the available vector calculation units, the first alignment controller 54 delivers a control signal to the first alignment circuit 55. The control signal controls the first alignment circuit 55 so that the storage data signals on the first thrcugh the fourth inner lines 66-1 to 66-4 are assigned to the first through the fourth controller storage lines 132-1 to 132-4 determined by the leading address, the distance, and the number of the available vector calculation units. Such an alignment controller 54 and a first alignment circuit 55 may be as described in EP-A-0 189 200, and will therefore not be mentioned any longer.

0037For example, it is assumed that the contents of the first register 31 are equal to "1111" and that the leading address of the leading one of the storage data signals and the following address of the following one of the storage data signals are made to correspond to the memory ports of the main memory 14 connected to the first and the second controller storage lines 132-1 and 132-2, respectively. In this event, when the illustrated memory access controller 13 is accessed by the first processor 11, the leading storage data signal is given through the first inner line 66-1 and is assigned to the first controller storage line 132-1 to be supplied to the main memory 14 while the following storage data signal is given through the second inner line 66-2 and is assigned to the second controller storage line 132-2 to be delivered to the main memory 14.

0038On the other hand, when the second processor 12 accesses the main memory 14 with the register 31 kept at "0011", the storage data signals are sent through the switching circuit 53 to the first alignment circuit 55 to be assigned to the third and the fourth controller storage lines 132-3 and 132-4 on the basis of the content of the register 31 (Fig. 2). Thus, the first alignment circuit 55 assigns the storage data signals to the third and the fourth controller storage data lines 132-3 and 132-4 in accordance with the configuration of the available vector calculation units indicated by the register 31.

0039In the example being illustrated, the request controller 51 is also connected to the delay circuit 56 through the third internal connection 63. This shows that the delay circuit 56 is supplied from the request controller 51 with the request information signal. The request information signal is delayed by the delay circuit 56 for an interval of time necessary for accessing the main memory 14. After lapse of the interval of time, a reply signal is sent back to the first and the second processors 11 and 12 through the request reception lines 111-2 and 121-2, respectively.

0040When the load or readout request is issued as the request information signal from each processcr, the load or the readout data signals are read out of the main memory 14 to be supplied to the second alignment circuit 58 through the controller load data path 133 composed of the first through the fourth controller load lines 113-1 to 113-4. The second alignment circuit 58 assigns the load data signals to the first load data path 113 or the second load data path 123 under control of the second alignment controller 57 connected to the delay circuit 56. In this case, the second alignment controller 57 is similar in structure and operation to the first alignment controller 54 except that the leading address, the distance, and the number of the available vector calculation units are delayed by the delay circuit 56. In addition, the second alignment circuit 58 serves to supply the load data signals to the vector calculation units included in the first and the second processors 11 and 12 under control of the second alignment controller 57 which is operable in a manner similar to the first alignment controller 54. As a result, the second alignment controller 57 controls the second alignment circuit 58 so that the load data signals are correctly assigned or distributed to the first load data path 113 or the second load data path 123. More specifically, the second alignment circuit 58 is controlled so that the leading load data signal read out of the leading address of the main memory 14 is returned back to the vector calculation units determined for the leading load data signal on the basis of the contents of the register 31 of each processor. From this fact, it is readily understood that the load data signals are correctly delivered to the first and the second processors 11 and 12 even when the vector calculation units are different in number and structure from each other.

0041Thus, the multiprocessor system illustrated in Figs. 1 through 4 comprises a plurality of processors each of which comprises at least one vector calculation unit and a register for storing a configuration signal representative of configuration of the vector calculation unit or units. In addition, each processor issues a memory access request including the configuration signal. Therefore, it is possible to put the processors into operation even when the configuration of the vector calculation units in each processor is different from one another. Therefore, the multiprocessor system flexibly assigns jobs to the processors. Moreover, the number of the vector calculation units can be minimized in the system. This is because each register 31 of the first and the second processors 11 and 12 individually indicates the configuration of the vector calculation units.

0042Although the first through the fourth vector calculation units 21 to 24 have been installed in each of the first and the second processors 11 and 12 as illustrated in Fig. 2, the numbers of the vector calculation units may be different from each other in the first and the second processors 11 and 12.

0043Referring to Fig. 4, the second processor 12 (Fig. 1) comprises a single vector calculation unit 21 which is similar in structure and operation to those illustrated in Fig. 2. In addition, the second processor 12 further comprises an instruction control unit 16' which includes a processing unit 26' which is similar in operation and structure to the processing unit 26 illustrated in Fig. 2. The single vector calculation unit 21 is connected to the memory access ccntroller 13 through the second storage data path 122 and the second load data path 123 like in Fig. 1 while the instruction control unit 16' is connected to the memory access controller 13 through a request transmission line 121-1 and a request reception line 121-2 both of which form the second request path 121.

0044In the example being illustrated, the register 31 in the second processor 12 may be structured by a single bit register and is set into "1" or "0".

0045The second processor 12 illustrated in Fig. 4 is operable in a manner similar to that illustrated in Fig. 2 and will not be described any longer.

0046While this invention has thus far been described in conjunction with a preferred embodiment thereof, it will readily be possible for those skilled in the art to put this invention into practice in various other manners. For example, two or more processors may be included in the multiprocessor system. In this event, each processor may comprise a plurality of vector calculation units which are independently controlled by the memory access controller.