Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!NADC.NADC.NAVY.MIL!moses From: moses@NADC.NADC.NAVY.MIL (Bill Moses) Newsgroups: comp.sys.transputer Subject: Re: Dynamic Reconfiguration ?? Message-ID: <9103131350.AA03701@NADC.NADC.NAVY.MIL> Date: 13 Mar 91 13:50:25 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 33 In response to <27405@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu> from Madhan Chidambaram > Can someone tell me the exact definition of a dynamically > reconfigurable machine. I have 2 definitions: > > -- A machine, in which at any instant of time we could use a > configuration of processors which is a subset of the configuration > of the the whole set of available processors in the system. > (Or is this static reconfiguration as we do not really change the > underlying configuration)? > > -- A machine in which the set of processors are reconfigured some > time during the execution of some program. That is, in this case, > the underlying configuration of processors is changed in the > middle of some program execution. (Is this possible at all) ? > > Which of the above definitons are correct ? Both are correct. The first is a logical reconfiguration, where the physical paths over which messages travel do not change, but the way the messages get from point to point may change; a message path may be reconfigured so that a different 'subset' of processors is made available without moving any wires (pc traces, etc.) The second is a physical reconfiguration, where physical connections between processors are changed (via a link switch, for example) in order to alter the topology of the network. So to answer your question of what exactly is a dynamically reconfigurable machine, in my opinion, it is one in which the configuration may be changed in a way which does not require the user to modify hardware. If this is logical or physical, it is still dynamic reconfiguration. Bill