Most of all I need to thank my advisor A. Barney Maccabe for suggesting the persuasion of a Ph.D. (and then actually accepting me as his graduate student). Next, I like to thank the members of my dissertation committee for their acceptance of this task and their helpful comments and suggestions in preparing this proposal: Charlie Crowley, Charles E. Leiserson, and Bernard M. E. Moret.
Special thanks go to Ron Brightwell, David Greenberg, and Kevin Mccurley for their careful reading of the proposal manuscript and their suggestions for improvement. Mack Stallcup wrote a lcc backend for the i860. That is much appreciated. Last, but not least, I like to thank all the Puma team members at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico for their support. Specifically, I thank David van Dresser, Lee Ann Fisk, Tramm Hudson, Chu Jong, Michael Levenhagen, and Lance Shuler for letting me discuss the ideas in this proposal with them, and acknowledge their input, help, and setting me straight where necessary.