Multiprocessing, Distributed Processing, and Networks: Introduction

Tightly vs. loosely coupled systems

Loosely Coupled Systems

In a loosely coupled system, 2 or more CPU's may be located at some distance from one another, and communicate by passing messages over some sort of communication link. The primary justifications for such configurations are:

• Sharing of resources between multiple sites. These resources can include:

  • specialized hardware such as fast printers, high power processors
  • software
  • data