SMS 201

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SMS 201, a structured multiprocessor system (SMS) designed by Siemens during the late 70s, using an array of 128 8080 8-bit processors with 20 KiB of memory each to employ a MIMD technique of parallelism. The system, successor of the SMS 101, is based on a 1976 patent by Siemens employees Rudolf Kober, Herbert Kopp, and Christian Kuznia and comprises a control computer and an array of individual computers which cooperate under control of a process which establishes a three phase operation. In a control phase only the control computer operates, executes its program and informs the individual computers which function they must carry out during the next phase, called the autonomous phase. In this phase the individual computers simultaneously and independently fulfill their assigned functions and report completion thereof to the control computer. Finally, a communication phase is utilized for a data exchange between the computers.

=Block Diagram= Block Circuit diagram

=SMS in Computer Chess= Christian Kuznia elaborated on the West German BMBF government-funded SMS concept at a workshop of the Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung (GMD) in Bonn, November 14, 1979, with Konrad Zuse et al. attending, and mentioned computer chess as one application of parallel computing.

=Parwell= In cooperation of Siemens with the Technical University of Munich, a chess program for the SMS 201 was developed by three students, Thomas Nitsche, Elmar Henne and Wolfram Wolff - Parwell, which performed a distributed search and played the Second European Computer Chess Championship to qualify for Third World Computer Chess Championship, 1980, in Linz.

=See also=
 * FPGA
 * GPU
 * Parwell

=Publications=
 * Rudolf Kober (1976). A fast Communication Processor for the SMS Multimicroprocessor System. Euromicro Symposium on Microprocessing and Microprogramming
 * Rudolf Kober (1977). The Multiprocessor System SMS 201 Combining 128 Microprocessors To A Powerful Computer. Siemens AG
 * Herbert Kopp (1977). Numerical Weather Forecast with the Multimicroprocessor System SMS 201. IMACS-GI-Symposium on Parallel Computers and Parallel Mathematics, Technical University of Munich
 * Christian Kuznia, Herbert Kopp (1977). A Model for Process Communication in Parallel Processor Systems. IMACS-GI-Symposium on Parallel Computers and Parallel Mathematics, Technical University of Munich
 * Rudolf Kober (1979). SMS 201 — A powerfull parallel processor with 128 microprocessors. Euromicro Newsletter, Vol. 5, No. 1
 * Bruno Braunleder, Rudolf Kober (1981). Parallel processing with an array of microcomputers. Microprocessors and Microsystems, Vol.5, NO. 6

=External Links=
 * Patent CA1094188A1 - Multiprocessor system - Google Patents
 * Multiprocessor System - The Lens
 * Experten-Workshop über Arbeiten deutscher Rechner-Spezialisten:: GMD: Abschied von der Hardware-Forschung?, Computerwoche, July 12, 1979 (German) » Konrad Zuse

=References=

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