Amdahl's Law

Often used in discussions revolving around concurrent programs, Amdahl's Law explains the theoretical speedup of the execution of a program that can be expected when using concurrency. In this chapter, we will discuss the concept of Amdahl's Law, and we will analyze its formula, which estimates the potential speedup of a program and replicates it in Python code. This chapter will also briefly cover the relationship between Amdahl's Law and the law of diminishing returns.

The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

• Amdahl's Law
• Amdahl's Law: its formula and interpretation
• The relationship between Amdahl's Law and the law of diminishing returns
• Simulation in Python, and the practical applications of Amdahl's Law