A rough classification of hardware models
- Conventional single-processor computers are named SISD (single-instruction-single-data) machines.
- SIMD (single-instruction-multiple-data) machines incorporate the idea of parallel processing, using a large number of processing units to execute the same instruction on different data.
- Modern parallel computers are so-called MIMD (multiple-instruction-multiple-data) machines and can execute different instruction streams in parallel on different data.