Fundamentally, there are three main approaches when it comes to performing computations. At one end of the spectrum we have a single, humongously large processor; at the other end of the spectrum we have a massively-parallel conglomeration of extremely fine-grained functions (which some may call "a great big pile of logic gates"); and in the middle we have a gray area involving multiple medium- and coarse-grained processing elements. (Note that this illustration focuses on the general-purpose microprocessor-type central processing unit (CPU) and digital-signal processor (DSP) arenas; mainframe computers and supercomputers are outside the scope of these discussions.)

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