Most supercomputers with multi-socket nodes have had something like this for similar reasons. The earliest reference I can find is here http://oai.dtic.mil/oai

Most supercomputers with multi-socket nodes have had something like this for similar reasons. The earliest reference I can find is here http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA166610 http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefi... , but more modern examples of the idea are the Cray SeaStar http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.150.7293&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.150... or even SeaMicro's I/O virtualization ASIC if you squint the right way http://www.seamicro.com/?q=node/38 http://www.seamicro.com/?q=node/38 . SiCortex had some neat ideas, it was a shame to see them go.