Communications of the ACM - Special issue on computer architecture
The way forward in computer architecture research
ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News
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The designs of several high performance general purpose computers built during the last two decades are examined. The performance limitations they encountered and their approaches to overcoming these problems are discussed. An alternate design approach is described which avoids these problems. This is to have the computer support the simultaneous execution of several independent programs by multiprogramming its various components at the sub-instruction level. Estimates of its performance are made, and the implications for the Operating System are examined.The principles discussed are generally applicable, but to make the proposals more concrete the hardware implications are worked out in some detail for the IBM System/370, architecture.