Flynn’s classification is a widely used classification of processor parallelism based on the number of simultaneous instruction and data streams seen by the processor(s) at a given instant. They are as follows:

1.Single Instruction stream-Single Data stream (SISD): In this type of configuration, the processor is given a single instruction stream and a single data stream on which the processor operates as shown in the Figure 1 below.

2

3.Single Instruction stream-Multiple Data stream (MISD): This configuration has multiple processor units each is given the same instruction stream however the data streams for the processor units are different. This configuration is shown in Figure 2

4.Multiple Instruction stream-Single Data stream (MISD): This category has the processor units having a separate instruction stream but all of them working on the same data stream. As shown in Figure 3

5. Multiple Instruction stream-Multiple Data stream (MIMD): This is probably the most used multiprocessor configuration. There are multiple instruction streams and multiple data streams for all the processor units. This is shown in Figure 4.