Realities of Parallel Computers ...
Dissiderata
- Every computer has a fixed number of processors
- Present large computers have a few hundred processors up to a few thousand
- Using all available processors (usually) gives the best performance
- Processors can be very simple, but as first approximation, assume Pentium, PowerPC, MIPS
- The transmission of data from processor to processor is a significant (often the most signficant) cost