What is Gustafson's law and how does it relate to parallel computing?

Parallel Computing Questions



45 Short 80 Medium 49 Long Answer Questions Question Index

What is Gustafson's law and how does it relate to parallel computing?

Gustafson's law, proposed by John L. Gustafson, is a principle in parallel computing that states that the speedup achievable by parallel computing is determined by the size of the problem being solved and the amount of available resources, rather than being limited by the sequential portion of the program.

In other words, Gustafson's law suggests that as the problem size increases, the potential for parallel speedup also increases. This is in contrast to Amdahl's law, which assumes a fixed problem size and focuses on the limitations imposed by the sequential portion of the program.

Gustafson's law emphasizes that parallel computing can be highly beneficial for solving larger problems, as the increased resources can be effectively utilized to achieve faster execution times. It highlights the importance of scaling up the problem size and the parallel resources to fully exploit the potential of parallel computing.