/spl rho/: hierarchical modeling of parallel architectures

Although there exist many approaches for classification of computer architectures, no system is able to distinguish parallel computers adequately yet. The first part of this paper is a brief survey of the main characteristics of various parallel architecture concepts and several approaches of classification. We realized that the idea of defining a sharp classification system is questionable in the world of parallel computing. But we also recognized important structural similarities of computing systems. So we introduce a modeling system, called /spl rho/ (recursive hierarchical objects), which allows to describe the structure of various computing systems hierarchically However, we do not aim at a new classification system but at a scheme for modeling parallel architectures.