Doc : http://www.doughellmann.com/PyMOTW/multiprocessing/communication.html

#!/usr/bin/env python
from multiprocessing import Process
import os
import time

def sleeper(name, seconds):
   print('starting child process with id: ', os.getpid())
   print('parent process:', os.getppid())
   print('sleeping for %s ' % seconds)
   time.sleep(seconds)
   print("Done sleeping")


if __name__ == '__main__':
   print("in parent process (id %s)" % os.getpid())
   p = Process(target=sleeper, args=('bob', 5))
   p.start()
   print("in parent process after child process start")
   print("parent process about to join child process")
   p.join()
   print("in parent process after child process join")
   print("parent process exiting with id ", os.getpid())
   print("The parent's parent process:", os.getppid())

import multiprocessing
import time

class Consumer(multiprocessing.Process):
    
    def __init__(self, task_queue, result_queue):
        multiprocessing.Process.__init__(self)
        self.task_queue = task_queue
        self.result_queue = result_queue

    def run(self):
        proc_name = self.name
        while True:
            next_task = self.task_queue.get()
            if next_task is None:
                # Poison pill means shutdown
                print '%s: Exiting' % proc_name
                self.task_queue.task_done()
                break
            print '%s: %s' % (proc_name, next_task)
            answer = next_task()
            self.task_queue.task_done()
            self.result_queue.put(answer)
        return


class Task(object):
    def __init__(self, a, b):
        self.a = a
        self.b = b
    def __call__(self):
        time.sleep(0.1) # pretend to take some time to do the work
        return '%s * %s = %s' % (self.a, self.b, self.a * self.b)
    def __str__(self):
        return '%s * %s' % (self.a, self.b)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    # Establish communication queues
    tasks = multiprocessing.JoinableQueue()
    results = multiprocessing.Queue()
    
    # Start consumers
    num_consumers = multiprocessing.cpu_count() * 2
    print 'Creating %d consumers' % num_consumers
    consumers = [ Consumer(tasks, results)
                  for i in xrange(num_consumers) ]
    for w in consumers:
        w.start()
    
    # Enqueue jobs
    num_jobs = 10
    for i in xrange(num_jobs):
        tasks.put(Task(i, i))
    
    # Add a poison pill for each consumer
    for i in xrange(num_consumers):
        tasks.put(None)

    # Wait for all of the tasks to finish
    tasks.join()
    
    # Start printing results
    while num_jobs:
        result = results.get()
        print 'Result:', result
        num_jobs -= 1