Details the complete Splash 2 project-the hardware and software systems, their architecture and implementation, and the design process by which the architecture evolved from an earlier version machine. In addition to the description of the machine, this book explains why Splash 2 was engineered. It illustrates several applications in detail, allowing you to gain an understanding of the capabilities and the limitations of this kind of computing device.

The Splash 2 program is significant for two reasons. First, it is part of a complete computer system that achieves supercomputer like performance on a number of different applications. The second significant aspect is that this large system is capable of performing real computations on real problems. In order to understand what happens when the application programmer designs, it is necessary to see the system as a whole. This book looks in-depth at one of the handful of data points in the design space of this nee kind of machine.