What are the differences between parallel system and distributed system?

Answer 1

What is the difference between parallel computing and distributing computing?

In the most simple form = Parallel Computing is a method where several individual (autonomous) systems (CPU's) work in tandem to resolve a common computing workload.

Distributed Computing is where several dis-associated systems are working seperatly to resolve a multi-faceted computing workload.

An example of Parallel computing would be two servers that share the workload of routing mail, managing connections to an accounting system or database, solving a mathematical problem, ect...

Distributed Computing would be more like the SETI Program, where each client works a seperate "chunk" of information, and returns the completed package to a centralized resource that's responsible for managing the overall workload.

If you think of ten men pulling on a rope to lift a load, that is parallel computing. If ten men have ten ropes and are lifting ten different loads from one place to consolidate at another place, that would be distributed computing.