A Level Computer Science OCR Practice Exam

What term refers to a computer executing multiple instructions at once?

1. Serial processing

2. Single processing

3. Parallel processing

4. Linear processing

The correct answer is: Parallel processing

The term referring to a computer executing multiple instructions at once is parallel processing. This concept involves the simultaneous execution of multiple calculations or processes, essentially allowing a computer to tackle larger and more complex tasks more efficiently by breaking them down into smaller, independent tasks that can be processed concurrently. Parallel processing is commonly found in modern computing architectures, such as multi-core processors, where each core can handle separate threads of execution at the same time. This increases computational speed and resource utilization, making it ideal for applications that require significant processing power, such as scientific simulations, graphics rendering, and large-scale data analysis. In contrast, serial processing refers to the execution of instructions one after another, which can create bottlenecks and increase processing time for tasks that could benefit from simultaneous execution. Single processing similarly focuses on executing one task at a time, while linear processing is not a commonly recognized term in this context and does not specifically denote executing multiple instructions simultaneously. Thus, parallel processing is the most accurate designation for this capability in computer systems.