Abstract
This report is an adaptation of a proposal that was submitted to the National Science
Foundation's Coordinated Experimental Research Program in September 1986.
In September 1980 the University of Washington's Eden Project Received the first
award in the CER program. Eden was a five-year effort that explored a specific approach
to building "integrated distributed" computer systems.
In September 1985 the University of Washington's Heterogenous Computer Systems Project
received a two-year CER award to study strategies for interconnecting hetrogenous
computer systems in a research environment.
In both the Eden Project and the HCS project, a relatively small subset of the
department joined together to pursue a specific, unified experimental research
objective. The proposal from which the current techreport is adapted adheres
to a different "model". A broad cross-section of our department currently is
involved in research into various aspects of parallel computing, supported by a
collection of "traditional" grants from NSF and other agencies. The proposal seeks
experimental infrastucture (equipment, maintenence, staffing) to support this
existing work, and to propel it in new directions. Thus, the value of this report
is that it presents a coherent review (through a "parallel computing" filter) of
the broad research activities of our department.
The reader desiring a quick overview should direct his or her attention to
Section B of the proposal (the "Executive Summary"), and the "Addendum" (a
separate 9-page document prepared in January 1987 and appearing at the end of
this report).
