Below is a schematic diagram that shows the network configuration for EMPIRE.

Each rack contains 32 nodes (the black boxes below represent IBM nodes, the blue boxes are SGI nodes). Each node is connected via 100Mb/s ethernet (represented with a gray line) to a switch in its rack (green boxes). Each rack switch is connected via gigabit ethernet (represented by red lines) to a main switch. The head node and the gateway system are also connected to the main switch via gigabit ethernet .