MINTABS: early experiences with a new paradigm for programming SIMD computers

A programming paradigm for massively parallel SIMD computers is described. The paradigm requires that each program be compiled into a special instruction set. Initially, the MINTABS software architecture´s instruction set is used. A process is assigned to a processing element (PE) by storing its instructions and data at that PE. The control unit broadcasts a fixed control algorithm and the PEs use it to interpret their own program. Initial experiments have demonstrated an increase in throughput by a factor of more than 700 on an 8192-processor machine. The throughput also increases linearly with the number of processors