AP CSP 3.1: Computing Systems

Serial vs Parallel Computing, Processors, Built-In Functions, The Cloud, Documentation, Distributed Computing

Heterogenous Processor

A processor that combines different kinds of processors into one chip.

What is an APU composed of?

A CPU and GPU (heterogenous processor)

What type of workloads do CPU’s deal with?

Serial Workloads

What type of workloads do GPU’s deal with?

Parallel workloads

What does higher core count mean?

More efficiency in calculations

Parallelization

Splitting a program’s workload across multiple processing cores, so a computer can process different workloads simultaneously.

Sequential Computing

The standard programming model, where the computer executes each operation one at a time.

How to calculate sequential computing

(#of seconds * #of calls per operation) and add them all up.

Speedup

sequential time/parallel time

.split() function

Allows for seperate words to be printed or returned from a sentence

enumerate() function

Accesses the value AND index of each item in a list.

Computing Cloud

A dense cluster of computers

Latency

The time it takes for a data packet to take a round trip between the sender, receiver, and sender again.

Documentation

Context of the code at the start of the program.

Parallel Computing

ONE computer with MULTIPLE processors

Distributed Computing

MULTIPLE computers with MULTIPLE processors.

What are parallel computing solutions composed of?

Parallel + Sequential portion

The efficiency of a parallel solution is limited by what?

its sequential portion.