The introduction of high-speed serial communication links and general purpose VLSI routers offers new opportunities in system design. C104 routers can be used to construct high throughput, low latency interconnection networks for use in telecommunications, parallel computers and electronic systems in general. The T9000 transputer with its integrated communication links can be connected directly to these networks, providing high performance data-handling, protocol conversion and network control. This text concentrates on aspects related to scaleable, general purpose, high-performance computing, low-latency message-passing and parallel processing.