Toward a science of parallel computation

The evolution of parallel processing over the past several decades can be viewed as the development of a new scientific discipline. Parallel processing has been, and is, undergoing the same evolutionary stages that are common to the development of scientific disciplines in general: exploration, focusing, and maturity. That parallel processing is not yet a science can readily be appreciated by its lack of some of the characteristics typical of mature sciences, such as prescriptive terminology, comprehensive taxonomies, and authoritative fundamental principles. A great deal of outstanding work has been done and the field is experiencing the beginnings of its ''focusing'' phase, i.e., support is being concentrated in a set of the more promising approaches selected from among the larger set of exploratory projects. However, the possible set of parallel-processing concepts is so extensive that exploratory work will probably continue for one or two more decades. In the meantime, the growing maturity of the field will be reflected in the increasing clarity and precision of the terminology, the development of systematic classification of the domain of discourse, the development of basic principles, and the growing number of commercial products that are the outcome of the research and development projects on which support is being focused. In this paper we develop some generalizations of taxonomies and use basic principles to draw conclusions about the extensibility of parallel processor architectures. 7 refs., 5 figs., 2 tabs