System and Method for Performing Dynamic Request Routing Based on Broadcast Source Request Information

• US 20090198958A1
• Filed: 02/01/2008
• Published: 08/06/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Arimilli, Ravi K., Arimilli, Lakshminarayana B., Lewis, Jerry D., Joyner, Jody B., Drerup, Bernard C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,779,148 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 712/29
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/06 Deflection routing, e.g. hot-potato routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/122 by minimising distances, e.g. by selecting a route with minimum of number of hops

Abstract

A system and method for performing dynamic request routing based on broadcast source request information are provided. Each processor chip in the system may use a synchronized heartbeat signal it generates to provide source request information to each of the other processor chips in the system. The source request information identifies the number of active source requests sent by the processor chip that originated the heartbeat signal. The source request information from each of the processor chips in the system may be used by the processor chips in determining optimal routing paths for data from a source processor chip to a destination processor chip. As a result, the congestion of data for processing at each of the processor chips along each possible routing path may be taken into account when selecting to which processor chip to forward data.

Claims

1. A processor chip, comprising:

at least one processor;

a plurality of communication ports for coupling the processor chip to a plurality of other processor chips; and

heartbeat signal generation logic for generating a heartbeat signal for broadcasting over the plurality of communication ports to the plurality of other processor chips, wherein the heartbeat signal generation logic transmits source request information associated with the processor chip in the heartbeat signal broadcast over the plurality of communication ports to the plurality of other processor chips, wherein the source request information identifies a number of active source requests associated with the processor chip.

2. The processor chip of claim 1, further comprising:

routing logic for selecting a route over which to transmit a data message to a destination processor chip, wherein the routing logic selects the route based on source request information received from the plurality of other processor chips.

3. The processor chip of claim 1, further comprising:

source request data structure storage that stores source request information for the plurality of other processor chips received in heartbeat signals from the plurality of other processor chips via the plurality of communication ports.

4. The processor chip of claim 3, further comprising:

source request transmission and routing logic that sends the source request information of the processor chip in the heartbeat signal generated by the heartbeat signal generation logic and that selects a route for transmission of data from the at least one processor to a destination processor chip based on the source request information stored in the source request data structure storage.

5. The processor chip of claim 4, wherein the source request information for the plurality of other processor chips is stored in association with processor chip identifiers and is correlated with routing table data structure information, based on the processor chip identifiers, when the source request transmission and routing logic selects the route for transmitting the data to the destination processor chip.

6. The processor chip of claim 4, wherein the source request transmission and routing logic is integrated with an integrated switch/router of the processor chip.

7. The processor chip of claim 4, wherein the source request transmission and routing logic selects the route to transmit the data by:

selecting a set of one or more candidate routes from the first processor chip to the destination processor chip based on an identity of the destination processor chip and which routes from the first processor chip to the destination processor chip are still available; and

selecting the route to be used to transmit the data to the destination processor chip based on source request information, stored in the source request data structure storage, for processor chips along each route in the candidate set of routes.

8. The processor chip of claim 7, wherein the route that is selected to be used to transmit the data to the destination processor chip is a route, in the candidate set of routes, having a lowest total number of active source requests as determined by the source request information for processor chips along the route.

9. The processor chip of claim 7, wherein selecting the route to be used to transmit the data to the destination processor chip further comprises selecting the route based on at least one of a number of hops from the processor chip to the destination processor chip along the routes in the set of candidate routes or reported error conditions of links along the routes in the set of candidate routes.

10. The processor chip of claim 1, wherein the processor chip and plurality of other processor chips are part of a computing cluster that comprises a multi-tiered full graph interconnect architecture data processing system having a plurality of supemodes, each supernode having one or more processor books, and each processor book having one or more processor chips of the plurality of processor chips.

11. A method, in a data processing system, comprising:

receiving, in a first processor chip of the data processing system, a plurality of first heartbeat signals from a plurality of second processor chips coupled to the first processor chip via one or more communication ports, wherein the plurality of first heartbeat signals have first source request information associated with respective processor chips of the plurality of second processor chips;

storing the first source request information in a source request information data structure storage of the first processor chip; and

performing routing of data from the first processor chip to a destination processor chip in the data processing system based on the first source request information stored in the source request information data structure storage.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the source request information identifies a number of active source requests associated with a corresponding processor chip in the plurality of second processor chips.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

generating, in the first processor chip, a second heartbeat signal for broadcasting from the first processor chip to the plurality of second processor chips via the one or more communication ports;

encoding the second heartbeat signal with second source request information associated with the first processor chip; and

transmitting the encoded second heartbeat signal to the plurality of second processor chips via the one or more communication ports.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the first source request information for the plurality of second processor chips is stored in association with processor chip identifiers.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein performing routing of data from the first processor chip to the destination processor chip comprises correlating the first source request information with routing table data structure information based on the processor chip identifiers.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein performing routing of data from the first processor chip to a destination processor chip comprises:

selecting a set of one or more candidate routes from the first processor chip to the destination processor chip based on an identity of the destination processor chip and which routes from the first processor chip to the destination processor chip are still available; and

selecting a route to be used to transmit the data to the destination processor chip based on first source request information, stored in the source request data structure storage, for processor chips along each route in the candidate set of routes.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the route that is selected to be used to transmit the data to the destination processor chip is a route, in the candidate set of routes, having a lowest total number of active source requests as determined by the source request information for processor chips along the route.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein selecting the route to be used to transmit the data to the destination processor chip further comprises selecting the route based on at least one of a number of hops from the first processor chip to the destination processor chip along the routes in the set of candidate routes or reported error conditions of links along the routes in the set of candidate routes.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the first processor chip and plurality of second processor chips are part of a computing cluster that comprises a multi-tiered full graph interconnect architecture data processing system having a plurality of supemodes, each supernode having one or more processor books, and each processor book having one or more processor chips of the plurality of processor chips.

20. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program, when executed in a data processing system, causes the data processing system to:

receive, in a first processor chip of the data processing system, a plurality of first heartbeat signals from a plurality of second processor chips coupled to the first processor chip via one or more communication ports, wherein the plurality of first heartbeat signals have first source request information associated with respective processor chips of the plurality of second processor chips;

store the first source request information in a source request information data structure storage of the first processor chip; and

perform routing of data from the first processor chip to a destination processor chip in the data processing system based on the first source request information stored in the source request information data structure storage.

21. A system, comprising:

a plurality of processor chips; and

a plurality of communication links coupling each processor chip in the plurality of processor chips to at least one other processor chip in the plurality of processor chips, wherein each processor chip in the plurality of processor chips comprises heartbeat signal generation logic for generating a heartbeat signal for broadcasting over one or more communication links, of the plurality of communication links, coupled to the processor chip to the plurality of other processor chips, the heartbeat signal generation logic transmits source request information associated with the processor chip in the heartbeat signal broadcast over the one or more communication links to the plurality of other processor chips, and wherein the source request information identifies a number of active source requests associated with the processor chip.