7.5.2. Amdahl’s Law and Diminishing Returns

Try these first

1. 1.

   What is Amdahl's Law?

   Hint

   Think about the relationship between parallel and serial tasks.

2. 2.

   Define diminishing returns in the context of computing.

   Hint

   Consider when additional effort does not lead to proportionate output.

3. 3.

   What does Amdahl's Law focus on in parallel processing?

   • The benefits of parallelism
   • The impact of serial components
   • The hardware used

   Hint

   Consider what factors might slow down a process.

4. 4.

   True or False: Diminishing returns imply that adding more resources always results in proportional speedup.

   • True
   • False

   Hint

   Think about how resources affect outcomes.

5. 5.

   If a task consists of 80% parallelizable work and 20% serial work, what is the maximum theoretical speedup using 5 processors?

   Hint

   Remember to convert the percentages to decimal form for calculations.

6. 6.

   Analyze how adding more processors affects a task where 50% is serial. Discuss strategies to improve speedup.

   Hint

   Consider practical optimizations that might be executed.