In this architecture, each processor can execute different instructions on different data. This is the most common architecture for modern multi-core processors and supercomputers.
MIMD allows for both task and data parallelism.
There are two main subcategories of MIMD:
- Shared Memory MIMD:
- All processors have access to a common pool of memory.
- Communication between processors is fast and straightforward.
- Typical multi-core laptop.
- Distributed Memory MIMD:
- Each processor has its own private memory.
- To share data, processors must explicitly send messages to each other over a network.
- Can scale to a much larger number of processors → foundation for most large-scale supercomputers.
Levels of Parallelism