Patent ID: 7734706

Claim:
A method for line-plane broadcasting in a data communications network of a parallel computer, the parallel computer comprising a plurality of compute nodes connected together through the data communications network, the data communications network optimized for point to point data communications and characterized by at least a first dimension, a second dimension, and a third dimension, the method further comprising: initiating, by a broadcasting compute node, a broadcast operation, including sending a message to all of the compute nodes along an axis of the first dimension for the data communications network; sending, by each compute node along the axis of the first dimension, the message to all of the compute nodes along an axis of the second dimension for the data communications network; sending, by each compute node along the axis of the second dimension, the message to all of the compute nodes along an axis of the third dimension for the data communications network; partitioning, by the broadcasting compute node, the message into a plurality of portions, each portion corresponding to one of the dimensions; sending a message to all of the compute nodes along an axis of the first dimension for the data communications network further comprises sending the portion of the message that corresponds to the first dimension to all of the compute nodes along the axis of the first dimension for the data communications network; sending, by each compute node along the axis of the first dimension, the message to all of the compute nodes along an axis of the second dimension for the data communications network further comprises sending, by each compute node along the axis of the first dimension, the portion of the message that corresponds to the first dimension to all of the compute nodes along the axis of the second dimension for the data communications network; and sending, by each compute node along the axis of the second dimension, the message to all of the compute nodes along an axis of the third dimension for the data communications network further comprises sending, by each compute node along the axis of the second dimension, the portion of the message that corresponds to the first dimension to all of the compute nodes along the axis of the third dimension for the data communications network.