Can you explain what is meant by multiprocessor and how it differs from multithreading?

Multiprocessing is the use of multiple processors (CPUs) in a system for parallel task processing. Each processor can execute a separate process or thread, increasing overall performance.

Multithreading is the ability of a single process to create multiple execution threads within itself. Threads share the process memory, which facilitates data exchange but requires synchronization.

The main difference:

• Multiprocessing is a hardware capability to have multiple processors.
• Multithreading is a software technique for parallel execution of code within a single process.

In Python, due to the GIL (Global Interpreter Lock), multithreading is limited, and true parallelism is often achieved through multiprocessing using the multiprocessing module.

Example of using multiprocessing in Python:

from multiprocessing import Process

def worker(num):
    print(f'Process {num} is running')

if __name__ == '__main__':
    processes = []
    for i in range(4):
        p = Process(target=worker, args=(i,))
        p.start()
        processes.append(p)
    for p in processes:
        p.join()