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Concurrency (Computer Science)

In computer science, concurrency is the ability of different parts or units of a program, algorithm, or problem to be executed out-of-order or in partial order, without affecting the final outcome. This allows for parallel execution of the concurrent units, which can significantly improve overall speed of the execution in multi-processor and multi-core systems. In more technical terms, concurrency refers to the decomposability property of a program, algorithm, or problem into order-independent or partially-ordered components or units.

A system is said to be concurrent if it can support two or more actions in progress at the same time. A system is said to be parallel ([parallelism]) if it can support two or more actions executing simultaneously.