Serial vs parallel execution of Principal Component Analysis using Singular Value Decomposition

Principal component analysis (PCA) is a crucial technique in data science and machine learning for reducing dimensionality and identifying crucial characteristics. But when dealing with big datasets, it uses Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), which is computationally costly. To address this issue, this study compares the effectiveness of parallel and serial PCA implementations. Serial execution uses a step-by-step data processing method, which is simple but falls short when dealing with large datasets. The task is divided across many processing units in parallel execution, which is preferred in high-performance computing environments, and thus results in significant speed increases for large datasets. While parallel execution shines with huge datasets and time-sensitive activities, serial execution improves with smaller datasets and simple scenarios. Depending on variables like dataset size and available computer resources, one of these techniques may be preferred over the other. In conclusion, this paper examines the advantages of utilizing parallel computing for PCA via SVD, offering a quick way to speed up calculations for high-dimensional datasets. It emphasizes how flexible it is to choose serial or parallel execution depending on the particular dataset's properties and processing needs.