ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a rough classification based on architectural features and their niche in the marketplace. This classification divides the machines into five categories: supercomputers, minisupercomputers, vector add-ons or vector-assisted mainframes, parallel processors, and high-performance graphics workstations. A much-referenced and useful taxonomy of computer architectures was given by Flynn. The multiprocessing architecture allow field expansion from eight to 504 processors, with corresponding increases in memory, memory-access bandwidth, and I/O capabilities. Virtual processing architecture allows the systems software to subdivide physical processors into the requisite number of virtual processors. Information is passed among processors by a very high speed (3 Gbits/s) communications path. All physical processors may send messages in parallel. Systems may be configured with either 32-bit or 64-bit floating-point hardware.
