It was 1979, when the Italian National Research Council launched the first nationwide cooperative research program in Computer Science. The research program was named “Progetto Finalizzato Informatica” (PFI for short), and comprised a number of research lines, including one devoted to multiprocessor systems, aiming at the achievement of both experimental and theoretical results. In the initial phases of the activities of PFI, much time was spent in contacts among researchers of different universities and research centers to form working groups with specific objectives. For this reason, one day in late 1979, four people met at the Electronics Department of Politecnico di Torino, in the office of Gianni Conte.