Multicore chips have more than one CPU core; multiple-processor computers have more than one CPU chip. Both have been introduced by manufacturers to speed up tasks by splitting threads or processes among different processors so that they can be performed in parallel.

Mathematica supports threading of numerical linear algebra across multiple-CPU or multicore computers.

In addition, Mathematica's notebook front end is a separate process from its computational kernel, allowing them to run on separate cores or CPUs. This gives a responsive interface even when the kernel core is under full load.

Built-in parallel computing distributes Mathematica computations over multiple processors or computers. gridMathematica gives individual users or workgroups a shared pool of additional Mathematica subkernels for distributing parallel computations over many CPUs.