THE COMMUNICATION CHALLENGE FOR MPP INTEL PARAGON AND MEIKO CS-2

The communication performance of the Intel iPSC/860, Paragon XP/S and the Meiko CS-2 are compared using the COMMS1 benchmark from the Genesi s Parallel Benchmark Suite. The challenge to distributed-memory massiv ely-parallel processors presented by the Cray-C90 shared memory comput er is highlighted by re-interpreting vector processing results as thou gh they were measuring communication startup and bandwidth. The result s show a wide pp between the two types of computer, in favour of the C -90. These results are for the initial issue of software and hardware of the Paragon and CS-2. Comments from Intel and Meiko are included to show how the manufacturers aim to improve communication performance.