Computer Organization and Architecture, unit: Parallel Architecture Basics. Core concepts, terminology, and worked-example cues a college student meets for this unit, building on prior units without repeating them. Front: a term, concept, or short problem cue. Back: the definition, explanation, or answer.
14 cards · basic cards · AI-written, checked twice. Edit anything.
- What is parallel architecture?
- A computer design that performs multiple computations simultaneously using multiple processing units
- What is Flynn's taxonomy?
- A classification of computer architectures based on instruction and data stream parallelism
- What is SISD (Single Instruction, Single Data)?
- A traditional architecture executing one instruction on one data item at a time
- What is SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data)?
- An architecture applying one instruction simultaneously across multiple data elements
- What is MIMD (Multiple Instruction, Multiple Data)?
- An architecture where multiple processors execute different instructions on different data independently
- What is a multi-core processor's key advantage?
- It can execute multiple independent tasks or threads simultaneously on separate cores
- What is shared memory architecture?
- A parallel system where multiple processors access a common memory space
- What is distributed memory architecture?
- A parallel system where each processor has its own private memory, communicating via messages
- What is a thread, in the context of parallel computing?
- An independent sequence of instructions that can be scheduled and executed concurrently
- What is speedup, in parallel computing?
- The performance improvement gained by using multiple processors compared to a single one
- What is Amdahl's Law used for?
- Estimating the maximum possible speedup from parallelizing a program, limited by its serial portion
- What is a race condition, in parallel computing?
- An error caused by multiple processes accessing shared data without proper synchronization
- What is synchronization, in parallel systems?
- Coordinating multiple processes or threads to ensure correct, ordered access to shared resources
- What is scalability, in the context of parallel architecture?
- The ability of a system to maintain performance gains as more processors are added
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