
4 CHAPTER 1 Introduction
LI WHY PARALLEL ARCHITECTURE
Computer architecture, technology, and applications evolve together and have very
strong interactions. Parallel computer architecture is no exception. A new dimen-
sion is added to the design space—the number of processors—and the design is
even more strongly driven by the demand for performance at acceptable cost. What-
ever the performance of a single processor at a given time, higher performance can,
in principle, be achieved by utilizing many such processors. How much additional
performance is gained and at what additional cost depends on a number of factors,
which we will explore throughou ...