A dynamically reconfigurable switch for high-speed networks

We present a design for a dynamically reconfigurable switch for high-speed networks. The proposed switch will be used to build high-performance parallel/distributed systems. Switch reconfigurability is exploited to implement different interconnection topologies and support different application requirements. We discuss an FPGA implementation of such a switch where a new configuration can be attained by reprogramming its routing component. The design supports both circuit and packet switching communications with wormhole routing. Our design employs virtual channel flow control to improve throughput and provide additional degree of freedom in routing packets to their destinations. We also show how to use the proposed switch design to build a high-speed multi-link ring network and how to embed other topologies, such as Hypercube, onto that ring network. The same approach can be adopted to embed other topologies.<
>