Persistent Nodes for Reliable Memory in Geographically Local Networks

A Persistent Node is a redundant distributed mechanism for storing a key/value pair reliably in a geographically local network. In this paper, I develop a method of establishing Persistent Nodes in an amorphous matrix. I address issues of construction, usage, atomicity guarantees and reliability in the face of stopping failures. Applications include routing, congestion control, and data storage in gigascale networks.

A Parallel Crossbar Routing Chip for a Shared Memory Multiprocessor

This thesis describes the design and implementation of an integrated circuit and associated packaging to be used as the building block for the data routing network of a large scale shared memory multiprocessor system. A general purpose multiprocessor depends on high-bandwidth, low-latency communications between computing elements. This thesis describes the design and construction of RN1, a novel self-routing, enhanced crossbar switch as a CMOS VLSI chip. This chip provides the basic building block for a scalable pipelined routing network with byte-wide data channels. A series of RN1 chips can be cascaded with no additional internal network components to form a multistage fault-tolerant routing switch. The chip is designed to operate at clock frequencies up to 100Mhz using Hewlett-Packard's HP34 $1.2\\mu$ process. This aggressive performance goal demands that special attention be paid to optimization of the logic architecture and circuit design.