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I am a newbie using Java to do some data processing on csv files. For that I use the multithreading capabilities of Java (pools of threads) to batch-import the csv files into Java and do some operations on each of their lines. On my quad-core, multithreading speeds up the process a lot.
I am curious to know how/whether multiprocessing would speed up the operations even more? If so, is there a tutorial available somewhere? (the Java Basic Tutorial mentions a class, but I am not familiar enough with the syntax to understand the class by myself:
from http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/concurrency/procthread.html:
Most implementations of the Java virtual machine run as a single process. A Java application can create additional processes using a ProcessBuilder object. Multiprocess applications are beyond the scope of this lesson [where are they explained then?].
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For most problems, multithreading is probably significantly faster than using multiple processes, but as soon as you encounter hardware limitations, that answer goes out the window.
Multithreading in Java is a process of executing multiple threads simultaneously. A thread is a lightweight sub-process, the smallest unit of processing. Multiprocessing and multithreading, both are used to achieve multitasking.
Multithreading saves time as you can perform multiple operations together. The threads are independent, so it does not block the user to perform multiple operations at the same time and also, if an exception occurs in a single thread, it does not affect other threads.
Multiprocessing is used to create a more reliable system, whereas multithreading is used to create threads that run parallel to each other. multithreading is quick to create and requires few resources, whereas multiprocessing requires a significant amount of time and specific resources to create.
I am curious to know how/whether multiprocessing would speed up the operations even more?
No, in fact it would likely make it worse. If you were to switch from multithreading to multiprocessing, then you would effectively launch the JVM multiple times. Starting up a JVM is no simple effort. In fact, the way the JVM on your desktop machine starts is different from the way an enterprise company starts their JVM, just to reduce wait time for applets to launch for the typical end-user.
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