Understanding theoretical limitations of parallel computing

It is important to note that parallel algorithms are not a silver bullet. Even the best-designed parallel architectures may not give the performance that we may expect. The complexities of parallel computing, such as communication overhead and synchronization, make it challenging to achieve optimal efficiency. One law that has been developed to help navigate these complexities and better understand the potential gains and limitations of parallel algorithms is Amdahl’s law.

Amdahl’s law

Gene Amdahl was one of the first people to study parallel processing in the 1960s. He proposed Amdahl’s law, which is still applicable today and is a basis on which to understand the various trade-offs involved when designing a parallel computing solution. Amdahl’s law provides a theoretical limit on the maximum improvement in execution time that can be achieved with a parallelized version of an algorithm...