Homework 8

22C:116, Fall 2000

Due Friday Oct 20, 2000, in class

Douglas W. Jones

  1. Background: (Based on problems 3 and 4 of the text, page 394) Consider a multicomputer with 1024 processors, each with 4 ports for communication with other processors. There are two natural topologies for such a system:

    Part a: For each of the above, what is the longest path from one machine to another in the network.

    Part b: For each of the above, what is the minimum number of carefully chosen links that must be broken to partition the network into two independent networks.

    Part c: Given that messages are addressed with a 10 bit destination address, suggest an address assignment scheme for these networks that leads to a relatively simple message forwarding algorithm. You must document both the address assignment scheme and the corresponding addressing algorith. (Ignore fault tolerance!)

  2. A Problem: Do problem 3 on page 460 of the text. Also give a clear explanation of what overhead is reduced by the decision to use buffers in the user's address space.

  3. A Problem: Consider connecting many RS-232 drivers and receivers to a single wire through appropriate couplings. Suggest (briefly) a class of protocols that could be used to transmit data over this networkd. (Hint: Something like this has been done commercially by at least one large vendor with modest success for local area networks).