iWarp Project


The iWarp system and project are described in iWarp: Anatomy of a Parallel Computing System,
by Thomas Gross and David R. O'Hallaron, published by MIT Press (Mar 1998).

This book describes the LIW processor, the inter-processor communication system, the software, and a number of applications that used iWarp systems.

Foreword by Gordon Bell (Microsoft Research), afterword by H. T. Kung (Harvard). [NEW] [01-Mar-98]

Table of Contents



The iWarp project was started in 1988 to investigate issues involved in building and using high performance computer systems with powerful communication support. The project lead to the construction of the iWarp machines, jointly developed by Carnegie Mellon University and Intel Corporation.

The basic building block of the iWarp system is a full custom VSLI component integrating a LIW microprocessor, a network interface and a switching node into one single chip of 1.2cm x 1.2cm silicon.

Technical data of iWarp systems

Computation agent of single cell: Communication agent of single cell: Memory System of single cell: Parallel system configurations:

iWarp status

Intel Corporation has announced the iWarp systems as product in 1989 and built iWarp systems with over 1500 nodes since then. The first iWarp prototype system was delivered to Carnegie Mellon in Summer 1990 and in Fall CMU received the first 64 cell systems. All three full speed production systems were delivered in 1991. With the creation of the Intel Supercomputing Systems Division in Summer 1992 the iWarp know how was merged with the iPSC product line. Intel kept iWarp as a product but stopped actively marketing it. As of today, the start of 1995 all three iWarp systems at CMU are in still in daily use. Surprisingly there are a few applications (e.g. in real time vision) for which iWarp is still the best machine, 3 years after it has been delivered. The high speed static memory and the high performance low latency communication system make iWarp a very well suited target for research efforts and many "proof of concept" applications.

Pictures of an iWarp system

Click small pictures for full size JPEG.

left: The iWarp chip (VLSI component)

right: The iWarp quad cell board (4 processors + memory + communication)

left: 64 iWarp cells mounted in a 19" rack (power: 1.2 GFlop/s).

right: iWarp system cabinet with up to 256 cells.

General info

Related projects in Parallel Systems