Multiprogramming for hybrid computation

Abstract

A significant recent development in hybrid computation is the increasing use of multiprogramming techniques and multiprocessing hardware. To some extent this trend is motivated by the development of multi-user systems in the pure digital field. However, the primary justification for hybrid multiprogramming is economic. It is possible to show that, by sharing a large, powerful central facility, the cost-per-computation can be reduced by almost an order of magnitude, as compared with the alternative of using several smaller, wholly-committed computers.