4 ;;Quote: in a von Neumann computer, most transistors do nothing most the time; only for memory

10 ;;Quote: Connection Machine motivated by semantic networks; e.g., processor for 'apple' connected to processor for 'red'

14 ;;Quote: the Connection Machine has as many processors as are needed for a problem; each processor must be small

15 ;;Quote: the physical connectivity of the Connection Machine is controlled by software; in order to match problem's structure

18 ;;Quote: the Connection Machine represents and processes data as 'active data structures' of interconnected processor and memory cells

32 ;;Quote: both CmLisp and the Connection Machine achieves parallelism through simultaneous operations instead of concurrent control

33 ;;Quote: parallel operations in CmLisp via a xector--a set of processors with one value per processor; e.g., xector add

33 ;;Quote: a xector element consists of a index (processor name and memory address) and a value; includes sets, index sequence, and constants

37 ;;Quote: in CmLisp, use .alpha. to convert a value into a constant xector; i.e., the value is loaded into every processor

39 ;;Quote: apply a xector of functions to all tuples with common xector indices; e.g., (.alpha.+ '{a->1 b->2} '{b-3 c->2}) => {b->5}

40 ;;Quote: in CmLisp, use .bullet. to selectively cancel the constant meta-operation .alpha.

40 ;;Quote: think of CmLisp's .alpha. as a way to get a zillion of something; .bullet. marks subexpressions that already have a zillion

41 ;;Quote: in CmLisp, .beta. reduction applies a function to the values of a xector in logarithmic time; ignores indices

46 ;;Quote: the simplest .beta. reduces a xector to a value; general form reduces portions of xectors and produces a xector

46+;;Quote: CmLisp's .beta. operation corresponds to the message routers while its .alpha. operation corresponds to processor execution

46 ;;Quote: the generalized .beta. creates a xector from a value xector, an index xector, and a combining function for duplicates; gives example

47 ;;Quote: simple .beta. reduction is the generalized .beta. operation applied to one xector; every value is combined

47 ;;Quote: a Connection Machine is a hardware implementation of CmLisp and .alpha./.beta. reduction

47+;;Quote: xectors are the contents of Connection Machine memory cells; processors are .alpha. operations and routers are .beta. operations

54 ;;Quote: the communications network of the Connection Machine does most of the computation, limits the performance, and costs the most

59 ;;Quote: a hashnet is a random network topology; does well compared to proposed networks and easy to analyze

71 ;;Quote: description of the CM-1 Connection Machine; 64K cells, 4K bits memory each, 1-bit ALU, boolean n-cube topology, host computer

74 ;;Quote: description of wide microinstruction for CM-1 Connection Machine; truth table on 2 bits and 16 flags, N/E/S/W pins for I/O

80 ;;Quote: when message delivered to a router, corresponding address bit is cleared; all done when address is 0

82 ;;Quote: the Connection Machine handles message congestion by referring messages to adjoining routers; one step further from destination

84 ;;Quote: a CM-1 prototype achieved 10^10 bits/sec random-message bandwidth; for local traffic expect 4x larger bandwidth

91 ;;Quote: an active data structure is a machine; the host controls the Connection Machine by telling the data (processor/memory) what to do

92 ;;Quote: set union, intersection, and universal qualifier can be unit-time operations on the Connection Machine

92 ;;Quote: the domain of a xector; mark members of the set with bits, tags, or pointers

92 ;;Quote: in a Connection Machine can allocate one bit per cell to indicate set membership

93 ;;Quote: if sets are disjoint, can represent membership by a tag value identifying the cell's set

95 ;;Quote: can represent a set by a root cell pointing to a few fanout cells that point to the set's members

96 ;;Quote: on the Connection Machine, convert pointer-represented sets to bit representation by propagating a marker through the fanout cells

98 ;;Quote: the Connection Machine uses trees and butterflies for collecting, combining, and spreading information, e.g., sets; need two-way pointers

106 ;;Quote: a butterfly structure avoids the exponential behavior of trees by keeping the levels constant sized; omega network, perfect shuffle, FFT

109 ;;Quote: can implicitly represent regularly structured trees and butterflies by address

112 ;;Quote: the Connection Machine can shift arbitrarily large segments of data in unit time; with type codes can update pointers in unit time

112 ;;Quote: the Connection Machine can search for substrings in time proportional to the length of the substring

137 ;;Quote: computer science is messy because it lacks the locality, symmetry, and invariance to scale found in physics

138 ;;Quote: in physics, action has local effects (e.g., inverse square law); in computation, a tiny program can clear all of memory

138 ;;Quote: the old conception of computation treated wires as idealized, instantaneous connections

138+;;Quote: in computers, wires are much of the cost, space and delay times

138+;;Quote: memory is a wire turned sideways in time

139 ;;Quote: in classic computational theory, the wire is not considered but it is very important to engineering; mismatch with reality

140 ;;Quote: massive communication has properties of physics--distance important, congestion acts like mass

141 ;;Quote: in a Connection Machine, could migrate cells in the direction of most communication; groups of intercommunicating cells would cluster

143 ;;Quote: computational systems will become physics-like because of physical constraints such as 3-d and speed of light

143 ;;Quote: what will computation look like with a mole of processors?; physics