This IMA Volume in Mathematics and its Applications ALGORITHMS FOR PARALLEL PROCESSING is based on the proceedings of a workshop that was an integral part of the 1996-97 IMA program on "MATHEMATICS IN HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING. " The workshop brought together algorithm developers from theory, combinatorics, and scientific computing. The topics ranged over models, linear algebra, sorting, randomization, and graph algorithms and their analysis. We thank Michael T. Heath of University of lllinois at Urbana (Com­ puter Science), Abhiram Ranade of the Indian Institute of Technology (Computer Science and Engineering), and Robert S. Schreiber of Hewlett­ Packard Laboratories for their excellent work in organizing the workshop and editing the proceedings. We also take this opportunity to thank the National Science Founda­ tion (NSF) and the Army Research Office (ARO), whose financial support made the workshop possible. A vner Friedman Robert Gulliver v PREFACE The Workshop on Algorithms for Parallel Processing was held at the IMA September 16 - 20, 1996; it was the first workshop of the IMA year dedicated to the mathematics of high performance computing. The work­ shop organizers were Abhiram Ranade of The Indian Institute of Tech­ nology, Bombay, Michael Heath of the University of Illinois, and Robert Schreiber of Hewlett Packard Laboratories. Our idea was to bring together researchers who do innovative, exciting, parallel algorithms research on a wide range of topics, and by sharing insights, problems, tools, and methods to learn something of value from one another.