Enhanced cluster k-Ary n-cube, a fault-tolerant multiprocessor

Abstract

We present a strongly fault-tolerant design for the k-ary n-cube multiprocessor and examine its reconfigurability. Our design augments the k-ary n-cube with (k/j)/sup n/ spare nodes. Each set of j/sup n/ regular nodes is connected to a spare node and the spare nodes are interconnected as either a (k/j)-ary n-cube if j/spl ne/(k/2) or a hypercube of dimension n if j=k/2. Our approach utilizes the capabilities of the wave-switching communication modules of the spare nodes to tolerate a large number of faulty nodes. Both theoretical and experimental results are examined. Compared with other proposed schemes, our approach can tolerate significantly more faulty nodes with a low overhead and no performance degradation.