Abstract
The performance of fine-grained MIMD machines is mainly dominated by the communication overhead. In order to implement a low-latency and highthroughput network under limited silicon area, the choice of optimal network parameters is critical. Due to the large design space of a network, it is difficult to evaluate a design without the aid of proper tools. In this paper, a simulator for low dimensional k-ary n-cube networks, which are wire-efficient [4] and are widely used in fine-grained message-passing multicomputer [1], is presented. The simulator helps to evaluate the network performance by using a predefined simulation language. The language can be used to specify network parameters, such as network topology, channel arbitration, processor/router interface, timing, flow control, and routing algorithm. Outputs generated by the simulator include average message latency, expected execution time, network hot spots, contention spots, message hit ratio, and size of message pools. A non-blocking send and blocking receive programming model is assumed.