Parallel computing involves breaking problems into discrete parts that can be solved concurrently using multiple processors. There are different forms of parallel computing including bit-level, instruction-level, data, and task parallelism. Parallel computing allows solving larger and more complex problems faster while making better use of underlying parallel hardware through sharing memory and resources across processors.

2.  Parallel computing is a type of computation.
 There are several different forms of parallel
computing: bit-level, instruction-level, data, and task
parallelism.

3. A problem is broken into discrete parts that
can be solved concurrently
Each part is further broken down to a series of
instructions

4.  Save Time And/or Money.
 Solve Larger / More Complex Problems.
 Make Better Use Of Underlying Parallel Hardware.

5. Multiple processors can operate independently but share the same memory
resources.
Changes in a memory location effected by one processor are visible to all
other processors.

6. Global address space provides a user-friendly programming
perspective to memory.
Data sharing between tasks is both fast and uniform.
Adding more CPUs can geometrically increases traffic on the
shared memory-CPU path.
Programmer responsibility for synchronization constructs.

7. Like shared memory systems, distributed memory systems vary
widely but share a common characteristic.
Processors have their own local memory.

8. Memory is scalable with the number of processors
Each processor can rapidly access its own memory.
It may be difficult to map existing data structures.
Non-uniform memory access times.

9. The largest and fastest computers in the world today both shared
and distributed memory architectures.
The shared memory component can be a shared memory machine.

10. Increased scalability.
Increased programmer complexity.

11. One of the more widely used classifications, is called Flynn's
Taxonomy.
The matrix below defines the 4 possible classifications according
to Flynn:

12.  Historically, 4-bit microprocessors were replaced with
8-bit, then 16-bit, then 32-bit microprocessors.
 This trend generally came to an end with the
introduction of 32-bit processors.

13.  Without instruction-level parallelism, a processor can
only issue less than one instruction per clock cycle
(IPC < 1).

14. Data bases, Data mining.
Networked videos and Multimedia technologies.
Medical imaging and diagnosis.
Advanced graphics and virtual reality.
Collaborative work environments.

15.  With increasing demands of human, and
more expectation from technology, the
importance of processing faster and to a
larger scale is growing fast.