Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!gatech!hubcap!eos!eugene
From: eos!eugene@eos.arc.nasa.gov (Eugene Miya)
Newsgroups: comp.parallel
Subject: Re: superlinear speedups in heuristic algorithms
Message-ID: <3839@hubcap.UUCP>
Date: 12 Dec 88 13:18:30 GMT
Sender: fpst@hubcap.UUCP
Lines: 39
Approved: parallel@hubcap.clemson.edu

In article <3808@hubcap.UUCP> israel@profundo.rutgers.edu (Nelken) writes:
>Recently there have been messages in this newsgrup about superlinear
>speedups in heuristic algorithms. The claim was that a uniprocessor
>might go down the wrong path in the tree
> . . .
>The problem lies in the misuse of terms.

This note reminded me of something: non-CS end-users think of parallelism
in the spatial/geometric sense (typically grids and lattices).

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Nice and regular.  CS-types tend to think of graphs and trees
[which have a greater degree of non-determinism].
	   .
	  / \
	 /\ /\

I know there is an equivalence between the two, but it is amusing
to here these two communities pass each other like ships in the night.

Some one else brought up the term "apples and oranges."  {Motherhood}
Don't forget that both are made of the same basic genetic material
(common stuff).  I thought about going to the library to burst this
analogy by getting chromosome counts.  It's all going to depend on how
close or far you look at these analyses.

Another gross generalization from

--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@aurora.arc.nasa.gov
  resident cynic at the Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers:
  "Mailers?! HA!", "If my mail does not reach you, please accept my apology."
  {uunet,hplabs,ncar,decwrl,allegra,tektronix}!ames!aurora!eugene
  "Send mail, avoid follow-ups.  If enough, I'll summarize."