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公开(公告)号:US20190155328A1
公开(公告)日:2019-05-23
申请号:US16165978
申请日:2018-10-19
Applicant: Graphcore Limited
Inventor: Simon Christian Knowles , Daniel John Pelham Wilkinson , Richard Luke Southwell Osborne , Alan Graham Alexander , Stephen Felix , Jonathan Mangnall , David Lacey
Abstract: The invention relates to a computer comprising: a plurality of processing units each having instruction storage holding a local program, an execution unit executing the local program, data storage for holding data; an input interface with a set of input wires, and an output interface with a set of output wires; a switching fabric connected to each of the processing units by the respective set of output wires and connectable to each of the processing units by the respective input wires via switching circuitry controllable by each processing unit; a synchronisation module operable to generate a synchronisation signal to control the computer to switch between a compute phase and an exchange phase, wherein the processing units are configured to execute their local programs according to a common clock, the local programs being such that in the exchange phase at least one processing unit executes a send instruction from its local program to transmit at a transmit time a data packet onto its output set of connection wires, the data packet being destined for at least one recipient processing unit but having no destination identifier, and at a predetermined switch time the recipient processing unit executes a switch control instruction from its local program to control its switching circuitry to connect its input set of wires to the switching fabric to receive the data packet at a receive time, the transmit time and, switch time and receive time being governed by the common clock with respect to the synchronisation signal.
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公开(公告)号:US20190121777A1
公开(公告)日:2019-04-25
申请号:US15886131
申请日:2018-02-01
Applicant: Graphcore Limited
Inventor: Simon Christian Knowles , Daniel John Pelham Wilkinson , Richard Luke Southwell Osborne , Alan Graham Alexander , Stephen Felix , Jonathan Mangnall , David Lacey
IPC: G06F15/173 , G06F15/80 , G06F8/41 , G06F9/38
Abstract: The invention relates to a computer program comprising a sequence of instructions for execution on a processing unit having instruction storage for holding the computer program, an execution unit for executing the computer program and data storage for holding data, the computer program comprising one or more computer executable instruction which, when executed, implements: a send function which causes a data packet destined for a recipient processing unit to be transmitted on a set of connection wires connected to the processing unit, the data packet having no destination identifier but being transmitted at a predetermined transmit time; and a switch control function which causes the processing unit to control switching circuitry to connect a set of connection wires of the processing unit to a switching fabric to receive a data packet at a predetermined receive time.
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公开(公告)号:US20190121387A1
公开(公告)日:2019-04-25
申请号:US15886009
申请日:2018-02-01
Applicant: Graphcore Limited
Inventor: Simon Christian Knowles , Daniel John Pelham Wilkinson , Richard Luke Southwell Osborne , Alan Graham Alexander , Stephen Felix , Jonathan Mangnall , David Lacey
Abstract: The invention relates to a computer comprising: a plurality of processing units each having instruction storage holding a local program, an execution unit executing the local program, data storage for holding data; an input interface with a set of input wires, and an output interface with a set of output wires; a switching fabric connected to each of the processing units by the respective set of output wires and connectable to each of the processing units by the respective input wires via switching circuitry controllable by each processing unit; a synchronisation module operable to generate a synchronisation signal to control the computer to switch between a compute phase and an exchange phase, wherein the processing units are configured to execute their local programs according to a common clock, the local programs being such that in the exchange phase at least one processing unit executes a send instruction from its local program to transmit at a transmit time a data packet onto its output set of connection wires, the data packet being destined for at least one recipient processing unit but having no destination identifier, and at a predetermined switch time the recipient processing unit executes a switch control instruction from its local program to control its switching circuitry to connect its input set of wires to the switching fabric to receive the data packet at a receive time, the transmit time and, switch time and receive time being governed by the common clock with respect to the synchronisation signal.
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