The future of distributed computing: renaissance or reformation?

ABSTRACT

In the near future, nearly all computers, ranging from supercomputers to smoke detectors, will be shared-memory multiprocessors. This change will affect the distributed computing community in two ways. First, as a Renaissance: perhaps for the first time ever, research in concurrent and distributed computing matters to people outside the community. Second, as a Reformation: the experience of confronting real multiprocessors, like early theorists' experience confronting FORTRAN, will force us to address problems obscured by many of today's elegant but naive computational models. This talk explores these possibilities.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  F. Theory of Computation
  F.m MISCELLANEOUS

Additional Classification:
  F. Theory of Computation
  F.0 GENERAL

General Terms:
Theory

Keywords:
distributed computing, theory