Parallel Computing vs. Distributed Computing: A Great Confusion? (Position Paper)

摘要

This short position paper discusses the fact that, from a teaching point of view, parallelism and distributed computing are often confused, while, when looking at their deep nature, they address distinct fundamental issues. Hence, appropriate curricula should be separately designed for each of them. The 'everything is in everything (and reciprocally)' attitude does not seem to be a relevant approach to teach students the important concepts which characterize parallelism on the one side, and distributed computing on the other side.