Development of parallel processing at NAL: A retrospect 13; 13;

The present report describes the design and development of the Flosolver series of parallel computers at NAL. Built with the specific aim of providing the much-needed computing power for complex aerospace problems, the Flosolver series has evolved from Flosolver Mk1 with four processing elements based on the 16-bit Intel 8086/8087 CISC processor, to the the latest version, Flosolver Mk3 with 7 processing elements based on the 32-bit Intel i860 RISC processor. Starting with a discussion of the strategies adopted in the design of these machines, the paper also discusses the various phases in the development and fabrication of the system software, and the application codes currently operational on them