Scalable Coherent Interface


Scalable Coherent Interface

(hardware, protocol)(SCI) The ANSI/IEEE 1596-1992standard that defines a point-to-point interface and a setof packet protocols. The SCI protocols use packets with a16-byte header and 16, 64, or 256 data bytes. Each packetis protected by a 16-bit CRC code.

The standard defines 1 Gbit/second serial fiber-opticlinks and 1 Gbyte/second parallel copper links. SCI has twounidirectional links that operate concurrently.

The SCI protocols support shared memory by encapsulatingbus requests and responses into SCI request and responsepackets. Packet-based handshake protocols guaranteereliable data delivery. A set of cache coherence protocolsare defined to maintain cache coherence in a shared memory system.

Message passing is supported by a compatible subset of theSCI protocols. This protocol subset does not invoke SCI cachecoherency protocols.

SCI uses 64-bit addressing and the most significant 16 bitsare used for addressing up to 64K nodes.

http://uni-paderborn.de/pc2/systems/sci/.