Flynn’s taxonomy

Types of Computers. Computers can be classified by Flynn s taxonomy (19). The three important classes are SISD single instmction, single data SIMD single instmction, multiple data and MIMD multiple instmctions, multiple data. 

Conventional CPUs found in the majority of modern computers, such as those manufactured by Intel and advanced micro devices (AMD), are designed for sequential code execution as per the Von Neumann architecture [16]. While running a program, the CPU fetches instructions and associated data from the computer s random access memory (RAM), decodes it, executes it, and then writes the result back to the RAM. Within the realm of Flynn s taxonomy [17], this would be classified as single instruction, single data (SISD). 

Traditionally, parallel computers are classified according to Flynn s taxonomy, which is based on whether ... 

During the early part of this decade, there was a vivid debate between proponents of MIMD (multiple instruction stream, multiple data stream) and SIMD (single instruction stream, multiple data stream) type parallel computers. This taxonomy, which stem from Flynn s classification [25,26] of possible computer architectures, can now be said to be mostly of historical and academic interest. 

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