Multicomputers: Message-Passing Concurrent Computers

  • Authors:
  • William C. Athas;Charles L. Seitz

  • Affiliations:
  • California Institute of Technology;California Institute of Technology

  • Venue:
  • Computer
  • Year:
  • 1988

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Abstract

A status report is provided on the architecture and programming of a family of concurrent computers that are organized as ensembles of small programmable computers called nodes, connected by a message-passing network, each with its own private memory. The architecture of the multicomputer is described and contrasted with that of the shared-memory multiprocessor, and the concept of grain size (which depends on the size of the individual memories) is explained. Medium-grain and fine-grain multicomputers, with nodes containing megabytes and tens of kilobytes of memory, respectively, are examined, and their programming is discussed.