DRogers@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA@sri-unix.UUCP (08/09/83)
From: David Rogers <DRogers@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA> I forward this message because it raises an interesting point, and I thought readers may care to see it. I had a reply to this, but perhaps someone else may care to comment. Date: Sun, 7 Aug 83 18:28:09 CDT From: Mike.Caplinger <mike.rice@Rand-Relay> Claiming that a parallel machine makes NP-complete problems polynomial (given that the machine has an infinite number of processing elements) is certainly true (by the definition of NP-completeness), but meaningless. Admittedly, a large number of processing elements might make a finitely-bounded algorithm faster, but any finitely-bounded algorithm is a constant time algorithm. (If I say N is never greater than the number of processors, then N might as well be a constant.)