The design and performance of multi-board systems could be greatly enhanced if there were analytical tools that designers could use to evaluate alternative systems. Research focuses on developing analytical tools that will enable computer system designers to quantify the throughput-delay performance of different configurations. Using these tools, the elements of the computer system that dominate performance can be identified. These tools will also benefit the community at large because they will allow the different bus standards to be evaluated under many conditions. The tools realistic models that include such factors as the bus topology, routing, service times, synchronization procedures, arbitration algorithms, etc.
