Validity of the Single Processor Approach to Achieving Large Scale Computing Capabilities

For over a decade prophets have voiced the contention that the organization of a single computer has reached its limits and that truly signicant advences can be made only by interconnection of a multiplicity of computers in such a manner as to permit cooperative solution. Variously the proper direction has been pointed out as general purpose computers with a generalized interconnection of memories, or as specialized computers with geometrically related memory interconnections and controlled by one or more instruction streams. Demonstration is made of the continued validity of the single processor approach and of the weaknesses of the multiple processor approach in terms of application to real problems and their attendant irregularities. [via]

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