  Computation refers to an algorithmic process of producing outputs from a
given set of inputs. We consider a particular model of computation where the
computing device is comprised of several components/ports placed at different
spacetime locations -- the inputs are distributed among different ports,
whereas the output is to be assessed by some other port. Importantly,
communications among the different ports are limited as the physical systems
allowed to be transmitted among the different ports are constrained with
information theoretic restrictions. Interestingly, this limited communication
distributed computing prototype provides an efficient modus operandi to compare
the computational strength of different mathematical models used to describe
those physical systems. We come up with computing tasks where quantum theory
outperforms its classical counterpart. More surprisingly, a broader class of
operational theories with state or/and effect space structures more exotic than
quantum theory turns out to be suboptimal in performing some distributed
computing tasks. We characterize the computations that can be perfectly
accomplished in quantum theory but not in other theories. The proposed
computing model thus provides a new approach to single out quantum theory in
the theory space and promises a novel perspective towards the axiomatic
derivation of Hilbert space quantum mechanics.
