Interconnection Networks

Foreword

William J. Dally,     Stanford University

In the five years since this book was originally published, rapid evolution of digital technology has made the material in this book even more relevant. Now, in 2002, even more than in 1997, wires and interconnect determine the performance, power, and cost of modern digital systems.

Point-to-point interconnection networks have replaced buses in an ever widening range of applications that includes on-chip interconnect, switches and routers, and I/O systems. The emerging standards of Infiniband and RapidIO are built around the concept of using a network to interconnect one or more processors with an array of I/O devices. Companies such as Sonics build on-chip interconnection networks—sometimes ...