Western Governors University (WGU) ICSC3120 C952 Computer Architecture Practice Exam

Parallelization in programming refers to the process of dividing a program into smaller components that can be executed simultaneously. This is done to improve performance and efficiency, especially in applications that require significant computational resources. By leveraging multiple processors or cores, tasks that are independent of each other can be processed concurrently, leading to faster completion of the overall program.

The concept is crucial in modern software development as it allows for better utilization of hardware capabilities. As computers increasingly feature multiple cores and parallel processing capabilities, programmers can design applications that not only execute faster but can also handle larger datasets and more complex operations.

The other options relate to different aspects of programming but do not involve the simultaneous execution of tasks. Running a program in sequence focuses on linear execution, optimizing a single process targets performance improvements without distribution, and reducing program size pertains to code efficiency rather than execution methodology.