Parallel Processing: Introduction

TRADITIONAL COMPUTING:

Traditionally, computer software has been written for serial computation (step-by step):

1. To solve a problem, an algorithm is constructed and implemented as a serial stream of instructions.
2. These instructions are executed on a CPU on one computer.
3. Only one instruction may execute at a time.
4. After that instruction is finished, the next is executed.

WHY USE PARALLEL COMPUTING?

1. saves time and money:Many things can be done simultaneously
2. solves larger problems
3. limitation of serial computing:
   -Transmission speed: the speed of a serial computer is directly dependent on how fast data can move through the hardware.
4. Currently, computer architecture are relying increasingly on hardware level parallelism to improve performances:
   -Multiple execution units 
   -Pipelined instructions 
   -Multi-core 

by CHONG LEE MAN B031210367