Networking and computing: From the Chip to the Web
Peter Kropf, John Plaice · reroDoc Digital Library · 1996
There are two fundamental trends in the development of computers: the miniaturization of components and the increase in communication capacities. The combination of these two trends is leading to a qualitatively new situation, in which the same techniques will be applicable at all scales of computing, be they at the chip level or at the level of the World Wide Web (WWW). 1. Introduction The von Neumann model of computation 3 has been the standard model of computation since the late 1940s. Under this model, a program is stored in a memory and executed by the combined action of a control unit and an arithmetic unit, with loads from the memory and stores to the memory being effected and coordinated by the control unit. This model of computation has shown itself to be remarkably successful. Even today, the vast majority of computers are uniprocessor machines that strongly adhere to the von Neumann model. As a result, the standard paradigm for software is imperative programming, a...