A vector processor is a Central Processing Unit design that is able to run mathematical operations on multiple data elements simultaneously. This is in contrast to a scalar processor which handles one element at a time.

Vector processor and Array processor are just the same thing, its a CPU design where instruction are set includes operations that can perform mathematical operations on multiple data elements simultaneously.

In computing, an autovector is an interrupt vector representing a priority level, from which the processor determines the target address.

An interrupt vector is the memory address of an interrupt handler, or an index into an array called an interrupt vector table or dispatch table. Interrupt vector tables contain the memory addresses of interrupt handlers. When an interrupt is generated, the processor saves its execution state via a context switch, and begins execution of the interrupt handler at the interrupt vector.

Vector and scalar processors also differ in their startup times. A vector processor often requires a prolonged startup of the computer because of the multiple tasks being performed. Scalar processors start a computer in a much shorter amount of time, since only single tasks are being executed.

The superscalar processor takes elements of each type and combines them for even fasterprocessing. Using instruction-level parallelism, superscalar processing can perform multiple operations at the same time. This allows for the CPU to perform much faster than a basic scalar processor, without the additional complexity and other limitations of the vectorprocessor. There can be problems with this type of processor, however, as it must determine which tasks can be performed in parallel and which are dependent on other tasks being completed first.

Vector and scalar processors are still used on a daily basis. Some video game consoles, for example, use a combination of both vector and scalar processors. Vector processing is seen to have promise when dealing with multimedia tasks in which one instruction can address the large amount of data required for video and audio.