Parallel Procesing

The simultaneous use of more than one CPU or processor core to execute a program or multiple computational threads. Ideally, parallel processing makes programs run faster because there are more engines (CPUs or cores) running it. In practice, it is often difficult to divide a program in such a way that separate CPUs or cores can execute different portions without interfering with each other. Most computers have just one CPU, but some models have several, and multi-core processor chips are becoming the norm. There are even computers with thousands of CPUs.
With single-CPU, single-core computers, it is possible to perform parallel processing by connecting the computers in a network. However, this type of parallel processing requires very sophisticated software called distributed processing software.