Computer and information science : Vol. 2: Computing with parallel architectures : T. Node

One of the major challenges in modern computer science is parallelism. Sequen tial processors are reaching their physical limits and definite advantages can be obtained by defining parallel computation models and designing parallel com puters. The CEC has funded the ESPRIT Supemode project to develop a low cost, high performance, multiprocessor machine. The result of this project ¡s a modular reconfigurable architecture based on transputers: T.Node. T.Node can be considered a European success, and the CEC has decided to continue to encourage the transputer community: manufacturers as well as researchers and end users. In this context, the present book gives a flavour of the state of the art in T.Node programming. First we present the architecture, the system software and the programming environment of T.Node. In a second part we show various trends in the design of system software for multiprocessor machines. Third, some real case applications on T.Node are presented in the field of ¡mage processing, image synthesis, and particle physics simulation. Neural computing is not a new topic but efficient implementations are. We show in a last section how neural nets can be simu lated and put to work on a transputer machine.