Scalable Coherent Interface (SCI) is an innovative interconnect standard (ANSI/IEEE Std 1596-1992) addressing the high-performance computing and networking domain. This book describes in depth one specific application of SCI: its use as a high-speed interconnection network (often called a system area network, SAN) for compute clusters built from commodity workstation nodes. The editors and authors, coming from both academia and industry, have been instrumental in the SCI standardization process, the development and deployment of SCI adapter cards, switches, fully integrated clusters, and software systems, and are closely involved in various research projects on this important interconnect. This thoroughly cross-reviewed state-of-the-art survey covers the complete hardware/software spectrum of SCI clusters, from the major concepts of SCI, through SCI hardware, networking, and low-level software issues, various programming models and environments, up to tools and application experiences.
