Microprocessors and Multiprocessing

Abstract

Multiprocessing, previously a rather expensive task, now can be performed cheaply and efficiently by microprocessors. But what is multiprocessing? Intepretation of this term is frequently confusing. In a general sense, multiprocessing is the use of a number of processors to carry out a single task, partitioned into subtasks and usually executed at the same time. Assume, for example, that an application requires a throughput equivalent to a microprocessor operating at a clock rate of 60 MHz. Such a device would be hard to find and quite costly to construct. If, however, the application is divided into, say, 10 subtasks, each of which is executed concurrently by 10 different microprocessors, an effectively high throughput results. This, of course, is only a rough definition of multiprocessing.