Understanding Parallel Architecture
Traditional taxonomies not very useful
Programming models not enough, nor hardware structures
- Same one can be supported by radically different architectures
=> Architectural distinctions that affect software
- Compilers, libraries, programs
Design of user/system and hardware/software interface
- Constrained from above by progr. models and below by technology
Guiding principles provided by layers
- What primitives are provided at communication abstraction
- How programming models map to these
- How they are mapped to hardware