Parallel computing

High school (ages 12+)
Science & Technology

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/parallel-computing

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the computational model?Execution of multiple computational tasks or processes concurrently on multiple processors
2. What is the future trajectory?Focus on exascale computing, heterogeneous architectures (CPUs, GPUs, TPUs), and energy efficiency
3. Why do scientists use parallel computing?Scientists use it to run huge simulations, like weather maps or molecules, that would take too long on a single computer.
4. What are shared‑memory and distributed‑memory computers?In shared‑memory systems, all processors share one memory space, which is easy to program but can get crowded. In distributed‑memory systems, each processor has its own memory and talks to others by sending messages, which lets many more processors work together.

Concurrency: The ability of different parts or units of a program, algorithm, or problem to be executed out of order or in partial order, without affecting the final outcome.
Message Passing Interface (MPI): A standardized and portable message-passing system designed to function on a wide variety of parallel computers.
GPU (Graphics Processing Unit): A specialized electronic circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device.
Exascale Computing: Refers to computing systems capable of performing at least one exaFLOP (a quintillion floating-point operations per second).