When computing technology is changing faster than at 
any time in its history, how should computers be designed? 

The demise of the "Big Iron" school, which founded mainframes, 
supercomputers, and MPPs, suggests a new species of large computers 
called a cluster or network of workstations (NOW). 
Just as the microprocessor was 
the principle invention that enabled the desktop computer, 
the invention of inexpensive switch-based networks enable NOWs. 

If successful, NOWs may redefine the high-end for traditional applications 
and be the cornerstone of new Web services emerging on the Internet.