OCR H446 2.1.5: Thinking concurrently
The free BugBot lesson that teach this point, a robot to try it on, and the past-paper questions that test it.
What it covers
A robot at a competition has jobs to do before a match: charge the battery, flash new firmware, print a part, calibrate the compass. One person doing them one after another takes all afternoon. A team that notices the battery can charge while the part prints finishes much sooner. Thinking concurrently is spotting which parts of a problem can happen at the same time, and knowing what that gains and what it costs.
- Concurrent and parallel
- Which parts can happen at the same time?
- Benefits and trade-offs
- Pipelining
Or do it in the simulator, with tasks that mark themselves
Lessons that teach it
- A2.8 Thinking concurrently Recursion and computational thinking
Concurrent and parallel processing, what can happen at once, benefits and trade-offs, and pipelining.
Try it on a robot
The task from A2.8 Thinking concurrently, running here. Change the program and press Run.
The specification is OCR's own document; this page says which of our lessons teach point 2.1.5 and is not endorsed by the board.