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Flynns Taxonomy

Vangie Beal
Last Updated May 24, 2021 7:43 am

First proposed by Michael J. Flynn in 1966, Flynn’s taxonomy is a specific classification of parallel computer architectures that are based on the number of concurrent instruction (single or multiple) and data streams (single or multiple) available in the architecture. The four categories in Flynn’s taxonomy are the following:

  • (SISD) single instruction, single data
  • (MISD) multiple instruction, single data
  • (SIMD) single instruction, multiple data
  • (MIMD) multiple instruction, multiple data