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  parallel processing
       
           The simultaneous use of more than one computer to
          solve a problem.  There are many different kinds of parallel
          computer (or "parallel processor").  They are distinguished by
          the kind of interconnection between processors (known as
          "processing elements" or PEs) and between processors and
          memory.  Flynn's taxonomy also classifies parallel (and
          serial) computers according to whether all processors execute
          the same instructions at the same time ("{single
          instruction/multiple data" - SIMD) or each processor executes
          different instructions ("{multiple instruction/multiple data"
          - MIMD).
       
          The processors may either communicate in order to be able to
          cooperate in solving a problem or they may run completely
          independently, possibly under the control of another processor
          which distributes work to the others and collects results from
          them (a "{processor farm").  The difficulty of cooperative
          problem solving is aptly demonstrated by the following dubious
          reasoning:
       
          	If it takes one man one minute to dig a post-hole
          	then sixty men can dig it in one second.
       
          Amdahl's Law states this more formally.
       
          Processors communicate via some kind of network or bus or a
          combination of both.  Memory may be either shared memory
          (all processors have equal access to all memory) or private
          (each processor has its own memory - "{distributed memory")
          or a combination of both.
       
          A huge number of software systems have been designed for
          programming parallel computers, both at the operating system
          and programming language level.  These systems must provide
          mechanisms for partitioning the overall problem into separate
          tasks and allocating tasks to processors.  Such mechanisms may
          provide either implicit parallelism - the system (the
          compiler or some other program) partitions the problem and
          allocates tasks to processors automatically or explicit
          parallelism where the programmer must annotate his program to
          show how it is to be partitioned.  It is also usual to provide
          synchronisation primitives such as semaphores and monitors
          to allow processes to share resources without conflict.
       
          Load balancing attempts to keep all processors busy by
          moving tasks from heavily loaded processors to less loaded
          ones.
       
          Communication between tasks may be either via shared memory
          or message passing.  Either may be implemented in terms of
          the other and in fact, at the lowest level, shared memory uses
          message passing since the address and data signals which flow
          between processor and memory may be considered as messages.
       
          See also cellular automaton.
       
          Usenet newsgroup: news:comp.parallel.
       
          http://www.ccsf.caltech.edu/other_sites.html)" rel="nofollow">Institutions (http://www.ccsf.caltech.edu/other_sites.html),
          research groups
          http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~scandal/research-groups.html)" rel="nofollow">(http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~scandal/research-groups.html).
       
          (1996-04-23)
       
       

  parallel processing
       n : simultaneous processing by two or more processing units
           [syn: multiprocessing]

  parallel processing /pˈaɹəlˌɛl pɹˈəʊsɛsɪŋ/ 
  paralelní zpracování

  parallel processing /pˈaɹəlˌɛl pɹˈəʊsɛsɪŋ/
  gleichzeitige Verarbeitung, parallele Verarbeitung, Parallelverarbeitung
     Synonym: concurrent processing
  
   see: processing, demand processing, immediate processing
  

  parallel processing /pˈaɹəlˌɛl pɹˈəʊsɛsɪŋ/
  istodobna obrada više od jednog zadatka računalom, paralelizacija koda, paralelno procesiranje, usporedna obrada