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On the notion of granularity

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Abstract

Granularity is a well known concept in parallel processing. While intuitively, the distinction between coarse-grain and fine-grain paralellism is clear, there is no rigorous definition. This paper develops two notions of granularity, each defined formally and represented by a single rational number. The two notions are compared and contrasted with each other and with previously proposed definitions of granularity.

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Supported, in part, by NSA OCREAE Grant MDA904-85-H-0002. Currently on leave at the National Science Foundation.

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Kruskal, C.P., Smith, C.H. On the notion of granularity. J Supercomput 1, 395–408 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00128489

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