On a more commercial mainstream level, the trend is toward shared-memory machines, from 4 to 32 to 64 processors. These are very easy to use machines, and the word "mainstream" should be emphasized here. These machines are very widely used in the business world, as servers and for various other applications. For example, looking at the June 1998 listing of the top-500 supercomputing sites, one will find several banks, several telecommunication companies, and various other companies such as American Airlines, Raytheon, Federal Express, Rubbermaid, Allstate, etc. So we should no longer think of parallel computing as some kind of exotic technology—it is much more widespread than most people probably think.

Another trend is toward the use of network-based systems. Essentially, if you have a number of computers connected in a network, you have a parallel computer. The rapid growth in networking and its projected future growth, including all the new wireless technology, has led people to think about a concept called "metacomputing". Metacomputing refers to the use of a heterogeneous network of computing resources, that may range from simple microprocessors to high-end multiprocessors. The analogy that is frequently used is that plugging into a metacomputer would be just like plugging into the electrical power grid. You would get as much computational power as you need, when you need it and where you need it, by grabbing compute cycles off the network. And just like I do not know or necessarily care where the electricity running my workstation has been generated, you would not necessarily know where the compute cycles you are using are actually coming from. This is a still developing concept, with much research still needed in algorithms, software and applications. In fact, there is a metacomputing group at Notre Dame that I currently interact with, looking at process engineering applications.

One interesting development along these lines is Jini. This is a system developed by Sun Microsystems, and announced in Summer 1998. It is based on Java, and is designed to allow machines ranging from computer-controller appliances to supercomputers to talk to each other and share computing power across a network. The idea that a lot of excess processing power resides today in appliances, such as refrigerators, is something that was mentioned in July 1998 at the FOCAPO meeting in Snowbird by Larry Smarr, who was the keynote speaker. This led to some joking about the potential power of a ''Refrigerator-Net''. Something like Jini makes that a little less far fetched. In fact it may not be far fetched at all. On September 30, 1998 a story appeared on the New York Times web site proclaiming "Refrigerator, Computer Combined." The story went on to say that this product is being marketed as an "Internet Refrigerator," and that it has a Pentium II microprocessor, a huge hard drive—and separate compartments for fruits and vegetables.