Concurrency + modularity + programmability = MARS
Modern, and particularly upcoming, technology makes it possible to design concurrent computers with a wide variety of architectures. The spectrum of applications requiring high-performance computer systems is also constantly growing. One might expect these two factors to cause a significant portion of the computer market to turn away from the traditional general-purpose mainframes in favor of the more diversified specialized proprietary machines. However, economic factors, production problems and maintenance and portability of software steer computer architects toward further unification and standardization of the design principles and components, and toward minimizing the number of proprietary computers.