Merits of Shared Memory Programming

• Global address space gives a user-friendly programming perspective to memory.
• Data sharing among processes is both fast and uniform due to the proximity of memory to CPUs.
• No use to specify explicitly the communication of data between processes.
• Insignificant process-communication overhead.
• More easier and intuitive to learn.

Drawbacks

• Complex to manage data locality.
• Not portable.
• Scalability is limited by the number of open pathways to memory.
• User is liable for specifying synchronization, example:- locks.