  A review of the literature reveals that while parallel computing is sometimes
employed by astronomers for custom, large-scale calculations, no package
fosters the routine application of parallel methods to standard problems in
astronomical data analysis. This paper describes our attempt to close that gap
by wrapping the Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) as a scriptable S-Lang module.
Using PVM within ISIS, the Interactive Spectral Interpretation System, we've
distributed a number of representive calculations over a network of 25+ CPUs to
achieve dramatic reductions in execution times. We discuss how the approach
applies to a wide class of modeling problems, outline our efforts to make it
more transparent for common use, and note its growing importance in the context
of the large, multi-wavelength datasets used in modern analysis.
