The first woman to win the prize was Frances E. Allen, in 2006, for her work in compiler optimization, which contributed to the development of parallel execution in multiprocessing.
Much like multiprocessing, which uses two or more processors in one computer to carry out a task, distributed computing uses a large number of computers to split up the computational load.
Commonly used time-sharing techniques include multiprocessing, parallel operation, and multiprogramming.
The wholesale endorsement of Linux, the open-source operating system for Pentium-style processors, by the world's leading hardware and software firms (with the exception of Microsoft) has turned it into a formidable platform for enterprise servers capable of ganging dozens, even hundreds, of internal processors together into a giant "symmetric multiprocessing" unit that behaves as a single entity.
As Bill Raduchel, the chief information officer, puts it: "If you don't understand the modestly parallel scaleable multiprocessing environment, then you might as well leave".Silicon Valley's obsession with "the cool idea" keeps it ahead of the competition.
IBM developed, and used chess to test, a sophisticated new multiprocessing system (later used at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., to predict the weather) that employed 32 microprocessors, each with six programmable chips designed specifically for chess.
Modern multiprocessing operating systems allow many processes to be active, where each process is a "thread" of computation being used to execute a program.
Multiprocessing is typically carried out by two or more microprocessors, each of which is in effect a central processing unit (CPU) on a single tiny chip.
One form of multiprocessing is called time-sharing, which lets many users share computer access by rapidly switching between them.
Multiuser operating systems employ a technique known as multiprocessing, or multitasking (as do most single-user systems today), in which even a single program may consist of many separate computational activities, called processes.
Multiprocessing, in computing, a mode of operation in which two or more processors in a computer simultaneously process two or more different portions of the same program (set of instructions).
