Cellular multiprocessing is a

multiprocessing Multiprocessing is the use of two or more central processing units (CPUs) within a single computer system. The term also refers to the ability of a system to support more than one processor or the ability to allocate tasks between them. There ar ...

computing architecture In computer engineering, computer architecture is a description of the structure of a computer system made from component parts. It can sometimes be a high-level description that ignores details of the implementation. At a more detailed level, the ...

designed initially for

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the devel ...

central processing unit A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, an ...

s from

Unisys Unisys Corporation is an American multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. It provides digital workplace solutions, cloud, applications, and infrastructure solutions ...

, a worldwide information technology consulting company. It consists of the partitioning of processors into separate computing environments running different operating systems. Providing up to 32 processors that are crossbar connected to 64GB of

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered ...

and 96

PCI card Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) is a local computer bus for attaching hardware devices in a computer and is part of the PCI Local Bus standard. The PCI bus supports the functions found on a processor bus but in a standardized format th ...

s, a CMP system provides

mainframe A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...

-like architecture using Intel CPUs. CMP supports

Windows NT Windows NT is a proprietary graphical operating system produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released on July 27, 1993. It is a processor-independent, multiprocessing and multi-user operating system. The first version of Wi ...

and

Windows 2000 Server Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was official ...

AIX Aix or AIX may refer to: Computing * AIX, a line of IBM computer operating systems *An Alternate Index, for a Virtual Storage Access Method Key Sequenced Data Set * Athens Internet Exchange, a European Internet exchange point Places Belgiu ...

Novell NetWare NetWare is a discontinued computer network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, using the IPX network protocol. The original NetWare product in ...

and UnixWare and can be run as one large SMP system or multiple systems with variant

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

s. There is a concept of creating CPU Partitions in CMPs, e.g. one can create a full partition of 32 processors, Or one can create two partitions of 16 processors each, these two partitions will be visible to the OS installed as two machines. Similarly for 32 processors it is possible to create 32 partitions at max each having a single CPU. Unisys' CMP is the only server architecture to take full advantage of Microsoft's Windows 2000 Datacenter Server operating system's support for 32 processors. In case of LINUX/UNIX OS the CMP technology is proven to be very best, whereas in case of Windows 2003 Servers installations, there are certain limits for partitions having number of CPUs, like for a windows 2003 installation the maximum CPU in a partition can only be 4, if more CPUs are assigned severe performance degrade are observed. Even on 8 CPU partition the performance is comparable to the performance of a 2 processors partition. A CMP subpod contains four x86 or Itanium CPUs, which connect through a third-level

cache Cache, caching, or caché may refer to: Places United States * Cache, Idaho, an unincorporated community * Cache, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Cache, Oklahoma, a city in Comanche County * Cache, Utah, Cache County, Utah * Cache Coun ...

to the crossbar. Each crossbar supports two subpods, two direct I/O bridges (DIBs) and can connect to four memory storage units (MSUs).

is also providing CMP server technology to

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced ...

Dell Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...

, Hewlett-Packard and

ICL ICL may refer to: Companies and organizations * Idaho Conservation League * Imperial College London, a UK university * Indian Confederation of Labour * Indian Cricket League * Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory of the University of Oxford * Israel Ch ...

, under OEM agreements.

References

Parallel computing {{Comp-sci-stub

See also

References