Chapter 21½ A Productive Implementation of an Associative Array Processor: STARAN 331
The associative processor may be viewed as a software-programmable super-peripheral, or special purpose subsidiary processor, for attachment to any general purpose conventional computer system via standard channel attachment. In this role the super-peripheral is assigned parallel oriented problem segments and data bases which would otherwise, through excess operating system software overhead, tend to choke the conventional machine.
Although first applications of the associative processor are of the real time, dedicated, command and control type, the extension to large scale data base management, on-line management information systems with immediate response to complex multiple-key queries, and large scale matrix computations await only user decision and ingenuity to accomplish now that production hardware and software has become available at the 370/145 price level.
The cost effectiveness of associative processing has yet to be proven in operational systems, but test results from initial users should accumulate rapidly now that associative processing is no longer only an interesting concept in the literature.
References
Batcher [1974]; Rudolph [1972]; Batcher [1968]; Feldman; Fulmer and Meilander [1970]; Minker [1971]; Rudolph, Fulmer, and Meilander [1971]; Slade and McMahon [1957]; Stillman [1972]; Stone [1971].