Parallel Processing Preliminaries

Parallel processing is viewed as a way to overcome the limitations of single-processor systems. Two distinct styles of parallel computing are emerging. One method uses an array of cooperating processors, suitably synchronized by a clocking mechanism, such that each develops a part of the solution that it shares with other neighbors. The other method uses neural networks and is a radically different way of parallel processing. These networks are interconnections of analog computing elements that cooperatively evolve toward a configuration, interpreted as a solution to the problem. There is no clock and the time evolution of the network follows a trajectory described by a set of differential equations. Such computation, that will perhaps mimic the behavior of the human brain, may be the way of the future [13].