Abstract
Very different computational requirements of user problems have given rise to a broad spectrum of computers ranging from general purpose via specialized multipurpose to special architectures. For the choice of the appropriate computer system, the user has to take into account both the computational demands of the target application and involved economic considerations. After a short characterization of scientific and engineering problem classes, main hardware and software means for specialization are described. Because of the versatility of multiprocessors, such systems are especially well suited for adapting the architecture to the user problem. This issue is discussed for architectural concepts such as hierarchical bus systems and shared memory systems.
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Fritsch, G. (1991). Multipurpose and special purpose computers. In: Becker, J.D., Eisele, I., Mündemann, F.W. (eds) Parallelism, Learning, Evolution. WOPPLOT 1989. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 565. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-55027-5_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-55027-5_6
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