A combining mechanism for parallel computers -- A case for the PRAM as a standard programmer's model -- Hashing strategies for simulating shared memory on distributed memory machines -- Better parallel architectures via emulations -- Relations between models of parallel abstract machines -- Frontiers of parallel computing -- Cost effectiveness of data flow machines and vector processors -- The networks of the connection machine CM-5 -- Massively parallel computing: Data distribution and communication -- A realizable efficient parallel architecture -- Hardware support for collective communication operations -- Programmable active memories: a performance assessment -- The role of randomness in the design of interconnection networks -- Chaos router: Finally, a practical adaptive router? -- An experimental study of wormhole routing in parallel computers -- Three non conventional paradigms of parallel computation -- Scalable parallel computers and scalable parallel codes: From theory to practice -- A framework for analyzing locality and portability issues in parallel computing -- Optimal implementation of general divide- and-conquer on the hypercube and related networks -- Parallel implementations of graph embeddings -- On sorting by prefix reversals and the diameter of pancake networks.

Research in the field of parallel computer architectures and parallel algorithms has been very successful in recent years, and further progress isto be expected. On the other hand, the question of basic principles of the architecture of universal parallel computers and their realizations is still wide open. The answer to this question must be regarded as mostimportant for the further development of parallel computing and especially for user acceptance. The First Heinz Nixdorf Symposium brought together leading experts in the field of parallel computing and its applications to discuss the state of the art, promising directions of research, and future perspectives. It was the first in a series of Heinz Nixdorf Symposia,intended to cover varying subjects from the research spectrum of the Heinz Nixdorf Institute of the University of Paderborn. This volume presents the proceedings of the symposium, which was held in Paderborn in November 1992. The contributions are grouped into four parts: parallel computation models and simulations, existing parallel machines, communication and programming paradigms, and parallel algorithms.