This paper discusses the use of parallel computer hardware to increase the efficiency of processing in databases of text and chemical structures. After a general introduction to parallelism, two types of parallel computer are described: the ICL Distrib uted Array Processor and the INMOS Transputer. Experimen tal results are presented of the use of the DAP for cluster analysis, of the transputer for chemical substructure and maxi mal common substructure searching, and of both machines for text retrieval.
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