This paper describes a parallel distributed computer architecture called MUSIC (multi signal processor system with intelligent communication). A single processor element (PE) consists of a DSP 96002 from Motorola (60 MFlops), program and data memory and a fast, independent communication interface; all communication interfaces are connected through a communication ring. A system with 30 processor elements (PEs) is operational. It has a peak performance of 1.8 GFlops, an electrical power consumption of about 350 watt (including forced air cooling). It fits into a 19 inch rack. The hardware price of this system is 40000 US $ which means a selling price of approximately 200000 US $. Beside the wellknown Mandelbrot algorithm (601 MFlops sustained), two real applications are at the moment successfully implemented on the system: the backpropagation algorithm for neural net learning results in a peak performance of 150 MCUPS (million connection updates per second) which equals 900 MFlops sustained and the molecular dynamics simulation program MD-Atom (443 MFlops sustained). Other applications of the system are in digital signal processing and finite element computation.>

The authors discuss the MUSIC (multi-signal-processor system with intelligent communication) system, a parallel distributed memory architecture based on digital signal processors (DSPs). A system with 60 processor elements is operational. It has a peak performance of 3.8 GFlops and an electrical power consumption of less than 800 W (including forced air cooling), and it fits into a 19" rack. Two applications (the backpropagation algorithm for neural network learning and molecular dynamics simulations) run about six times faster than on a CRAY Y-MP and two times faster than on a NEC SX-3. A sustained performance of more than 1 GFlops is reached.>