Python - How to make use of multiple CPU cores

Question

I know that Python programs execute as a single process using a single CPU.

Does this mean that opening 4 command prompts and launching, one after the other, 4 different .py scripts will result in making use of 4 CPU cores?

My system:

Alienware Workstation - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20 GHz
Windows 10 Home Edition
Python 2.7.15

yes. those are separate processes and under windows (and most OSs) they will normally be scheduled to run in parallel on multiple cores. — Sam Mason
– Sam Mason, Commented Dec 11, 2018 at 11:12

finefoot · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-11 11:15:10Z

6

In general, you're right: you'll use one CPU core with one python process. However, there are many ways which allow you to use more than one CPU core. Have a look at the official Python docs about multiprocessing.

This is an example, which will stress your CPU on all its cores:

from multiprocessing import Pool, cpu_count

def random_calculation(x):
    while True:
        x * x

p = Pool(processes=cpu_count())
p.map(random_calculation, range(cpu_count()))

answered Dec 11, 2018 at 11:15

finefoot

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