American computer engineer who, with Robert Benner and John Gustafson, made significant contributions to the field of parallel computer processing. Parallel processing is the practice of linking a number of small computers together to form a "virtual computer" that performs at very high speeds. Properly written operating systems, programming languages, and computer programs can take advantage of parallel and massively parallel computer architecture to perform at supercomputer speeds. Such systems have the benefit of providing supercomputer performance for the cost of only several desktop computers and software.