Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!murdu!ucsvc!wehi!baxter_a
From: BAXTER_A@wehi.dn.mu.oz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Multifinder - Just the Facts, man.
Message-ID: <7467@wehi.dn.mu.oz>
Date: 4 May 90 11:52:55 GMT
References: <20499@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <8930@hubcap.clemson.edu> <10143@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> <43785@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> <7416@wehi.dn.mu.oz> <1990May3.042500.18758@wam.umd.edu>
Organization: Walter & Eliza Hall Institute
Lines: 53

In article <1990May3.042500.18758@wam.umd.edu>, ddev@wam.umd.edu (Don DeVoe) writes:
> In article <7416@wehi.dn.mu.oz> BAXTER_A@wehi.dn.mu.oz writes:
>>In article <43785@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>, sl195091@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Andy Hartman) writes:
>>> In article <10143@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> cs163wed@sdcc10.ucsd.edu (see far) writes:
>>> 
>>>>
>>>>ISn't the AMiga's multi-tasking program swapping?   Unless you have
>>>>several amigas at once, you can never run programs simultaneously.
>>>>Amiga's multitasking only tricks you into thinking it is running
>>>>programs "simultaneously". 
>>>>
>>>>After all, you get only one 68000 in an amiga, don't you?
>>> 
>>
>>Youre right, Andy.
>>This drongo doesn't know the difference between multitasking and parallel
>>processing.
> 
> Tell us, just what is the difference? In a strict sense, you can't have
> (true) multitasking without multiple processors...anything else is just
> program swapping; multitasking is implicitly denied in a single processor
> system. And just what is a drongo, anyway?

This is a problem of semantics. Some  words mean a thing. Now no matter how
hard someone may want them to mean something else, they don't until a whole
bunch of people get to gether and have a common, new meaning of the words.

In a stict sense, multitasking is the process of maintaining more than
one task concurrently. Not necessarily actually processing data from each
of the tasks similtaneously, just maintaining them. Because of the way
it is achieved on a mainframe, people have come to expect pre-emptive
task switching, but this is not an essential feature. Yes, the mac multitasks.
Not well, but it does.

Parallel processing involves the concurrent use of more than one processor.
The words imply a number of things. I am not sure to what extent they are
essential, but most people expect a real parallel machine to have multiple
processors of the same type that are networked in such a way that any
processor can send a result to any other using address and relay system similar
to that on networked BBS's. Lots of people also describe a computer with
co-processors as "parallel processing" which is strictly correct, but
largely not what is ment when the words are used in the literature.

A 'drongo' is a cheerful, friendly idiot. It is a generic term of abuse
used in Australia amongst friends. It is roughly equivalent to the Australian
use of the word "bastard", which our prime minister uses with great effect.

Regards Alan

> 
> --
> Don DeVoe       "Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders 
> ddev@epsl.umd.edu  what the part that isn't thinking isn't thinking of" -TMBG