Overview of Trends Leading to Parallel Computing and Parallel Programming

Since the development and success of the first computer built from transistors in 1955, the quest for faster computers and computations have brought about various technological advancement in the way computers are built and the techniques involved in programming these computers. These trends have seen a radical change in speed, size and power consumption of these computers. A general observation can be seen from the sequential hardware/programs of the early 80s and 90s to the parallel hardware/programs of the present day 21th century computers. In all, there has been a tremendous improvement in computational speedup, size and energy consumed by these computers. This paper discusses these technological innovations/advancements in computer hardware and architecture leading to parallel computers, starting from the first sequential computer to the parallel computers available today with a focus on the key issues that led to the shift in the ways these computers were built, the limitations and future developments. It also discusses the programming models adopted for these parallel computers and how their limitations and gains contribute to a shift in ideology and higher speedup of computations.