In 1975 a major curriculum revision which converted an introductory first course using FORTRAN and a second course using PL/i into a two-semester PL/i sequence was made.The initial rationale and motivation, including an analysis of the potential audience and alternatives, is discussed.An overview of the individual courses, the distribution of topics, and our experience with the two courses is given.A review of this three-year old decision and another analysis of alternatives, especially in the light of the trend towards PASCAL and increasing emphasis on program verification, is made.Our conclusion is based on language-independent factors arising from our attitude towards programming and certain larger curriculum issues and is that our PL/i sequence should be retained.

Main memory and intermemory data transmission rate requirements of two-level memory multiprocessor systems are characterized.Operational software is modeled by computation graphs.For a fixed processing schedule, independent bounds on the main memory M and the data transmission rate C, required to insure that the processing will follow the specified schedule, are determined.Tradeoffs between M and C are completely specified by determination of the family of (M, C) pairs, any member of which will guarantee that the fixed schedule will be followed.The notion of an optimal pair (M, C) is introduced and the optimal pairs are also found.The interrelationship between values of (M, C) pairs and schedules is briefly explored througb modification of specified schedules.

These three papers, based upon the first author's Ph. D. dissertation, are concerned with the problem of assignment and sequencing of computations on multiprocessor or parallel computer systems. Although individually the papers suffer from the usual abstracting difficulties, the results are significant and warrant serious study by readers interested in computer system modeling and analysis.