Concurrent Computations

The 1987 Princeton Workshop on Algorithm, Architecture and Technology Issues for Models of Concurrent Computation was organized as an interdisciplinary work shop emphasizing current research directions toward concurrent computing systems. With participants from several different fields of specialization, the workshop cov ered a wide variety of topics, though by no means a complete cross section of issues in this rapidly moving field. The papers included in this book were prepared for the workshop and, taken together, provide a view of the broad range of issues and alternative directions being explored. To organize the various papers, the book has been divided into five parts. Part I considers new technology directions. Part II emphasizes underlying theoretical issues. Communication issues, which are ad dressed in the majority of papers, are specifically highlighted in Part III. Part IV includes papers stressing the fault tolerance and reliability of systems. Finally, Part V includes systems-oriented papers, where the system ranges from VLSI circuits through powerful parallel computers. Much of the initial planning of the workshop was completed through an informal AT&T Bell Laboratories group consisting of Mehdi Hatamian, Vijay Kumar, Adri aan Ligtenberg, Sailesh Rao, P. Subrahmanyam and myself. We are grateful to Stuart Schwartz, both for the support of Princeton University and for his orga nizing local arrangements for the workshop, and to the members of the organizing committee, whose recommendations for participants and discussion topics were par ticularly helpful. A. Rosenberg, and A. T.