Architecture and Applications of the Connection Machine

  • Authors:
  • Lewis W. Tucker;George G. Robertson

  • Affiliations:
  • Thinking Machines Corp.;Thinking Machines Corp.

  • Venue:
  • Computer
  • Year:
  • 1988

Quantified Score

Hi-index 4.14

Visualization

Abstract

The concept of data-parallel computers is explained, and their architecture of the Connection Machine (CM), which implements this approach, is described. It provides 64 K physical processing elements, millions of virtual processing elements with its virtual processor mechanism, and general-purpose, reconfigurable communications networks. The evolution of the CM architecture is examined, and the software environment, engineering and physical characteristics, and performance of the current embodiment (the CM-2) are discussed. Applications of the CM to molecular dynamics, VLSI design and circuit simulation, and computer vision are described.