Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!cti1!mpledger From: mpledger@cti1.UUCP (Mark Pledger) Newsgroups: comp.databases Subject: Re: definition wanted Message-ID: <392@cti1.UUCP> Date: 7 Feb 91 12:14:13 GMT References: Organization: Comprehensive Technologies Int., Arlington VA Lines: 32 looi@sutro.SFSU.EDU (W. W. Looi) writes: >Hi, can someone out there please explain to me what >the following mean? > - loosely coupled system > - tightly coupled system Loosely-coupled and tightly-coupled systems refer to the way in which the computer (generally a parallel machine) system memory and/or cpu architectures are designed. A loosely-coupled system has local memory and/or cpu resources as well as globally shared memory and/or cpu's. Where as tightly-coupled systems are isolated from every other memory and/or cpu in the system and they therefore have to talk to each other through a messaging schema. Because the loosely-coupled systems can share memory and/or cpu's, message passing is generally faster. Of course there is the problem of "critical code" to manage the shared memory and/or cpu's. -- Sincerely, Mark Pledger -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CTI | (703) 685-5434 [voice] 2121 Crystal Drive | (703) 685-7022 [fax] Suite 103 | Arlington, VA 22202 | mpledger@cti.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------