Abstract: | With the current advances in computer and networking technology coupled with the availability of software tools for parallel and distributed computing, there has been increased interest in high-performance distributed computing (HPDC). We envision that HPDC environments with supercomputing capabilities will be available in the near future. However, a number of issues have to be resolved before future network-based applications can fully exploit the potential of the HPDC environment. In the paper we present an architecture for a high-speed local area network and a communication system that provides HPDC applications with high bandwidth and low latency. We also characterize the message-passing primitives required in HPDC applications and develop a communication protocol that implements these primitives efficiently. |