Embarrassingly parallel: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:14, 10 November 2018

Revision as of 16:04, 30 January 2019

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In [[parallel computing]], an '''embarrassingly parallel''' workload or problem (also called '''perfectly parallel''' or '''pleasingly parallel''') is one where little or no effort is needed to separate the problem into a number of parallel tasks.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Herlihy|first1=Maurice|last2=Shavit|first2=Nir|title=The Art of Multiprocessor Programming, Revised Reprint|date=2012|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=9780123977953|page=14|edition=revised|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vfvPrSz7R7QC&q=embarrasingly#v=onepage&q=embarrasingly&f=false|accessdate=28 February 2016|quote=Some computational problems are “embarrassingly parallel”: they can easily be divided into components that can be executed concurrently.}}</ref> This is often the case where there is little or no dependency or need for communication between those parallel tasks, or for results between them.<ref name=dbpp>Section 1.4.4 of: {{cite webbook

|url=http://www.mcs.anl.gov/~itf/dbpp/text/node10.html

|title=Designing and Building Parallel Programs

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==Etymology==

"Embarrassingly" is used here in the same sense as in the phrase "an [[embarrassment of riches]]", meaning an overabundance—here referring to parallelization problems which are "embarrassingly easy".<ref>Matloff, Norman (2011). ''The Art of R Programming: A Tour of Statistical Software Design'', p.347. No Starch. {{ISBN|9781593274108}}.</ref> The term may also imply embarrassment on the part of developers or compilers: "Because so many important problems remain unsolved mainly due to their intrinsic computational complexity, it would be embarrassing not to develop parallel implementations of polynomial homotopy continuation methods."<ref>{{cite journalbook|last1=Leykin|first1=Anton|last2=Verschelde|first2=Jan|last3=Zhuang|first3=Yan|title=Parallel Homotopy Algorithms to Solve Polynomial Systems|year=2006|workjournal=Proceedings of ICMS 2006|urlvolume=4151|pages=225–234|doi=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F11832225_22#page/11832225_22|series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science|isbn=978-3-540-38084-19}}</ref> The term is first found in the literature in a 1986 book on multiprocessors by [[MATLAB]]'s creator [[Cleve Moler]],<ref name=hcmp>{{cite journalbook

| title = Matrix Computation on Distributed Memory Multiprocessors

| author = Moler, Cleve

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| editor-first = Michael T.

| year = 1986

| isbn = 0898712092978-0898712094

}}</ref> who claims to have invented the term.<ref>[http://blogs.mathworks.com/cleve/2013/11/12/the-intel-hypercube-part-2-reposted/#096367ea-045e-4f28-8fa2-9f7db8fb7b01 The Intel hypercube part 2 reposted on Cleve's Corner blog on The MathWorks website]</ref>