ClusterMonkey has a recent article with an easy to follow discussion of the need to think more seriously about the details of the processor interconnect in multicore HPC systems.
Mulit-core is changing everything. What do you think the effect mulit-core has on the interconnect requirements for your cluster? Hint: More cores need more interconnnect.
It’s written almost as an InfiniBand marketing piece, but it still has value as an “issue awareness” piece. Recall that Sun was talking about its new multithreaded 10 Gig E card designed specifically to enable its multicore chips to get to the network more effectively. I’d be interested in knowing what readers think.