For a core size of N c = 2, only one worker is used and ideally the computational time should be equivalent to that obtained in serial operation. However, due to additional core communication time in parallel operation, there is a slight increase in the total computational time of approximately 1-3% using N c = 2 for all test problems. For low core sizes (N c < 6), the speedup achieved is relatively close to perfect speedup behaviour. For TP1 and TP2, the maximum speedup is achieved at approximately N c = 8 where larger core sizes fail to provide any real benefit as worker idle time becomes more of a factor. As the size of the test problem increases so does the core size at which the speedup plateaus.