# Multi-process Parallelism

- ## Multiple distinct processes.

  - High startup cost.
    - Amount of work must justify it.
  - Communication is by:
    - Message passing; inter-process shared memory, semaphores and spin-locks; RPCs; distributed objects.
  - Long associated with distributed memory machines and clusters.
  - Used on shared memory machines too.
    - Can be highly portable.
    - Automatic data localization.

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