ABSTRACTRecent years have seen the development of a wide range of high-performance discontinuously reinforced aluminum powder metallurgy composites. These materials have combined both standard wrought, e.g., 6061 and 2124, and specialty matrix compositions, e.g., Al-Cu-Mg-Li and Al-Fe-Ce, with a wide variety of discontinuous reinforcements, e.g., Al₂O₃, B₄C, SiC_p and SiC_w. This paper discusses the manufacturing procedures utilized to fabricate these light-weight powder-metallurgy composites. Emphasis is given to developing a generalized framework for understanding the interrelationship existing between thermo-mechanical treatment and the mechanical behavior of these composite systems.