AbstractThe load distribution among processing elements (PE) in the parallel computer system is one of the major factors affecting the performance of the entire system. This paper discusses the dynamic distribution scheme which distributes the load at the execution of the task. The major factor, which affects the performance in the dynamic load distribution scheme, is the information concerning the loading situation of each PE and the data transfer for distributing the load. This paper proposes a dynamic load distribution scheme, which reduces these overheads considerably by utilizing the network. The idea can be applied to both the circuit‐switching network and the packet‐switching network. Especially, the scheme based on the packet‐switching network is one of the load distribution schemes suited to the instruction‐level data‐driven computer, using the packet as the major communication means among PE's. Based on the proposal of the scheme, the performance of the system is evaluated for a typical configuration example for the parallel processing program. It is verified as a result that the proposed system operates very closely to the ideal dynamic load distributi