A flexible bit-pattern associative router for interconnection networks

A programmable associative approach to execute implicit routing algorithms is presented. Algorithms are mapped onto a set of bit-patterns that are matched in parallel. We have studied and mapped a large number of routing algorithms for a wide range of interconnection network topologies. Here we report three cases that illustrate the capabilities of the router scheme. For the studied topologies, the number of required bit-patterns is of the same order as the topology degree. The proposed approach is one of the fastest routers and requires a very small amount of hardware.