Block Transfers in a Shared-Memory Multiprocessor

Steven J.E. Wilton

Master of Applied Science Dissertation, 1992


Abstract

This thesis studies the feasibility of providing hardware block transfer support in a shared memory multiprocessor. Architectural enhancements for a ring-based system similar to the Hector multiprocessor developed at the University of Toronto are presented. It is shown that such hardware support can improve the performance of the multiprocessor, but that the amount of improvement depends on the memory access behaviour of the program and the way in which the operating system issues block transfers.
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