This paper discusses advanced parallel processing concepts and their use for radar simulation and image processing. It describes both the advantages and disadvantages of a number of architectures and illustrates these with actual implementations. It discusses issues relevant to real-time image generation, including latency, synchronization, and scheduling dispersion. It also discusses the problems inherent in designing state-of-the-art systems in a research and development environment, and then applying that product to an evolving market. Finally, it makes recommendations concerning future directions in parallel processing and simulation.