Modularity and multi-microprocessor structures

There are significant advantages to a modular approach to system design. As semiconductor technology has evolved the complexity of what a designer considers as a design primitive has also grown. Systems constructed from the next generation of module sets will bear a strong resemblance to multiprocessor structures. A taxonomy of the multiprocessor space is given and the subspace to be occupied by the next generation module sets is delineated. Summaries are given of recent research results on two key problems in modular, as well as general, multiprocessor structures: the parallel decomposition of algorithms and deadlocks. Some open research questions conclude the discussion.

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