An Overview of SIMD Parallel Systems AMT DAP , Thinking Machines CM - 200 , & MasPar MP - 1 N B MacDonald EPCC - TR 92 - 18

SIMD computers are a class of massively parallel computer in which many processors simultaneously execute the same instructions on their own data. This paper briefly reviews the history of the development of SIMD computers, and gives an overview of the state of the art in SIMD computers by comparing the origins, hardware, software, performance, price and marketing of three commercially available SIMD computers: the Distributed Array Processor from AMT; the Connection Machine CM-200 from Thinking Machines Corporation; and the MasPar Computer Corporation MP-1. Presented at the Workshop on Parallel Computing, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan, 26th–30th April 1992.