Why it matters

PRAM is theoretical parallel model. Understanding shapes theory.

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The architecture

p processors + shared memory.

Concurrency options for reads + writes.

O(1) per operation.

PRAM model variantsp processorsshared memConcurrencyEREW / CREW / CRCWO(1) opsunrealistic idealTheoretical baseline; real hardware doesn't match; still useful for algorithm design
PRAM.
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How it works end to end

EREW: exclusive read + write.

CREW: concurrent read.

CRCW: concurrent read + write.

Idealized model.