9753065 Hughes, Esther A. North Carolina A & T University Real-Time Reconfigurable Network Interfaces Networked computing environments composed of commercial, off-the shelf (COTS) workstation clusters are increasingly being used to implement scalable multiprocessor architectures. As new interconnect protocols emerge for clustered workstation environments, the interfaces between the hosts and the network facilitating interprocessor communication must be better defined. The investigator explores the performance of various hardware and software alternatives which support real time and fault tolerant communication using a reconfigurable interface in a clustered workstation environment. A multiprocessor testbed along with field programmable gate array technology are used to design hardware that emulates a set of fault tolerant, dynamically reconfigurable hardware interfaces capable of injecting various faults. The interfaces are evaluated in both fault-free and faulty environments with a suite of real time applications selected from a number of areas, including autonomous spacecraft navigation and onboard data processing.
