Parallel Computing

• A type of computation in which many calculations or processors are carried out simultaneously.
• Larger problems are divided into smaller ones, which can be solved at the same time.
• Deeply intertwines with High-Performance Computing (HPC).
• Distinct from concurrent computing.

We can speed up important computational tasks 10s, 100s, or 1000s of times with parallel computing.

“The practical difference between obtaining results in hours rather than weeks or years is substantial. It qualitatively changes the range of studies one can conduct. For example, climate change studies, which simulate thousands of Earth years, are feasible only if the time to simulate a year of climate is a few hours.” (President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee Report, 2005)