The opportunities offered by parallel processing for rapid processing of information in computer systems are now being exploited in commercial as well as scientific applications. This book brings together a group of contributions from academic and commercial environments to show how parallel processing techniques can best be used in business. The book includes a report of real-user experience as well as chapters on hardware and software, on distributed systems and databases, on the application of knowledge-based systems and the use on object-oriented techniques in parallel processing systems. The aim of the book is to offer help both to those who are considering implementing parallel systems and to those who wish to understand how to make the best use of parallel processing systems they have installed.