[CPU bound vs I/O bound]

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Tags: #cpu #io #bound

CPU bound vs IO bound.md

Note: the following is credited to yaoyao.codes.

• CPU bound: the rate at which a process progresses is limited by the speed of the CPU.
• I/O bound: the rate at which a process progresses is limited by the speed of the I/O subsystem.

This means a task that performs calculations on a small set of numbers, for example multiplying small matrices, is likely to be CPU bound. While a task that processes data from disk, for example, counting the number of lines in a file is likely to be I/O bound.

A program is CPU bound if it would go faster if the CPU were faster.

A program is I/O bound if it would go faster if the I/O subsystem was faster.