I was also totally confused by the idea to make sum faster than linear, but I think I know where it came from. If you have infinitely (or at least n/2) processors, you can do n/2 additions "in one step." Then repeat it with the result and this gives you log_2(n) steps, but on any partucular machine it will just make summation (ideally) number_of_cores times faster in real time, but it still will use the same amount of CPU time plus ovehead.
Andrey --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
