PARALLEL PROGRAMMING

Abstract

About the only method of meeting an immediate need for greater computer speed is to resort to parallel processing. Since parallel computations do not introduce any new logical capabilities but do necessarily introduce additional programming effort, a serial computer of sufficient speed would probably always be preferable to a truly parallel computer. But since sufficiently fast serial computers may not beALWAYS AVAILABLE WHEN NEEDED, IT APPEARS URGENT TO STUDY THE PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH TRULY PARALLEL COMPUTERS. The general problem is briefly defined as follows. A number of tasks, each with an associated execution time, is present d along with a (partial) set of restrictions on the sequencing of the various tasks. Except for these restrictions, the computer is capable of handling up to nu of these tasks simultaneously. Given these data, such things are determined as the minimu execution ime, t e ffici cy wit ic the p rallel computing possibilities can be used, and the manner in which these quantities vary with nu and with the topology of the sequencing restrictions. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1960
Accession Number
AD0261623

Entities

People

  • Paul Richards

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Computational Processes
  • Computations
  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Computing-Related Activities
  • Parallel Computing
  • Parallel Processing
  • Topology

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Computer Science.
  • Linear Algebra
  • Systems Analysis and Design