An application-oriented multiprocessing system, III: Control program features

In designing a control program for the IBM 9020 system discussed in Part II of this paper, the main programming challenge was to provide for the simultaneous operation of two or more Computing Elements (processing units) without having one interfere with the others. The obvious approach, that of preassigning specific functions to each Computing Element, is too inflexible. In fact, any scheme based on the habitual notion that Computing Elements should be the focal point of control is apt to lead to inflexibilities.