The Details of Parallel Processing Are the Hardest Part

Mike Ash has an absolutely excellent post up today discussing the importance of the details when designing an application for parallel processing.

His post focuses on using Grand Central Dispatch (part of Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard”), but the core point is valid for any approach to multiprocessing: it’s not just a simple matter of queueing jobs. You have to consider the impact of those jobs on the system as a whole.