Transaction processing monitors (TP monitors) provide core support for distributed transaction processing. They act as middleware, routing client messages to application servers and providing infrastructure for building complex transaction systems. TP monitor architectures include the process-per-client model, single-server model, many-server single-router model, and many-server many-router model. TP monitors ensure the ACID properties of atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability through features like persistent queuing, logging, recovery, and concurrency control. They have proven resilient over time and will continue impacting emerging middleware technologies.