A study of an SCI switch fabric

The scalable coherent interface (SCI) defines a high-speed interconnect system that provides a coherent memory system. It specifies a topology-independent communication protocol with the possibility of connecting up to 64 K nodes. SCI switches are the key components in building large SCI systems effectively. An SCI switch which uses several internal buses is studied as well as more complex systems composed of several switches. Computer simulations are used to compare the different models and to determine system parameters.