The insatiable need for ever more processing and storage capacity is a driving force. Boundaries are shifted depending on technological and economic possibilities and conditions. Bottlenecks are bypassed until other bottlenecks arise or reappear at a different level. This is how shifting paradigms arise and the computer landscape shows ever-changing views over the years.
From central processing on one mainframe to decentralized, personal computing. Until later the emphasis falls on distributed systems, again centrally organized at a higher level. Communication is accelerated in first instance by parallel bus structures but eventually by networks of fast serial interconnections. Naturally, different applications have different requirements. Think of the development of special supercomputers. In the early days of the personal computer, these were not powerful enough for professional users, but separate workstations with RISC processors were. Current PCs can now be used in all sizes and configurations and are even used as building blocks for supercomputers.

The insatiable need for ever more processing and storage capacity is a driving force. Boundaries are shifted depending on technological and economic possibilities and conditions. Bottlenecks are bypassed until other bottlenecks arise or reappear at a different level. This is how shifting paradigms arise and the computer landscape shows ever-changing views over the years.
From central processing on one mainframe to decentralized, personal computing. Until later the emphasis falls on distributed systems, again centrally organized at a higher level. Communication is accelerated in first instance by parallel bus structures but eventually by networks of fast serial interconnections. Naturally, different applications have different requirements. Think of the development of special supercomputers. In the early days of the personal computer, these were not powerful enough for professional users, but separate workstations with RISC processors were. Current PCs can now be used in all sizes and configurations and are even used as building blocks for supercomputers.