Advantages And Disadvantages Of MIMD Machines

Neha K. Shinde Prof. Sunil R. Gupta
Student, Department of Electronic Engineering, HOD, Department of Electronics engineering,
J D College of Engineering and Management, J D College of Engineering and Management,
RTM Nagpur University, Maharashtra, India RTM Nagpur University, Maharashtra, India [e-mail] [e-mail]

Abstract: Thread and process-level parallel architectures are typically realized by MIMD (Multiple Instruction Multiple Data) computers. This class of parallel computers

The processor/memory pair is called processing element (PE) and they work more or less independently of each other. Whenever interaction is necessary among the PEs they send messages to each other. None of the PEs can ever access directly the memory module of another PE. This class of MIMD machines are called the Distributed Memory MIMD Architectures or Message-Passing MIMD Architectures.

The advantages of the distributed memory systems are:

1. Since processors work on their attached local memory module most of the time, the contention problem is not so severe as in the shared memory systems. As a result distributed memory multicomputer are highly scalable and good architectural candidates of building massively parallel computers.

2. Processes cannot communicate through shared data structures and hence sophisticated synchronization techniques like monitors are not needed. Message passing solves not only communication but synchronization as well.

Disadvantages of Distributed memory systems are:

1. In order to achieve high performance in multicomputer special attention should be paid to load balancing.

2. Message-passing based communication and synchronization can lead to deadlock