Parallellføres

Parallellføres is a Norwegian verb meaning to arrange, connect, or execute in parallel. It is used in several technical contexts, notably electronics and computing, to describe making processes or components operate simultaneously rather than sequentially. The term can indicate either a physical arrangement—components connected in parallel—or a logical one—tasks carried out concurrently.

In electronics and electrical engineering, parallellføres refers to connecting components in parallel. In a parallel connection, components share the same voltage across them, while the currents add up. The total resistance is given by the reciprocal sum: 1/R_total = sum_i (1/R_i). For identical resistors R, R_total = R/n. The arrangement affects current draw and fault behavior: a parallel network tends to draw more current but maintains the same voltage as each branch.

In computing and data processing, parallellføres describes executing multiple tasks at the same time on separate cores or processing units. This is central to parallel processing, multi-threading, and distributed computing. The potential speed-up depends on how parallelizable the workload is and the overhead of coordination. Amdahl's law provides a bound: speed-up is limited by the non-parallel portion of the program. Practical considerations include load balancing, synchronization, memory access patterns, and communication overhead.

See also parallellisering, parallellkobling, and parallel computing.