eSecurity Planet: Software & Internet Security Trends, Virus Alerts

November 28, 2009

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SMP

Last modified: Monday, May 18, 1998

(1) Short for Symmetric Multiprocessing, a computer architecture that provides fast performance by making multiple CPUs available to complete individual processes simultaneously (multiprocessing). Unlike asymmetrical processing, any idle processor can be assigned any task, and additional CPUs can be added to improve performance and handle increased loads. A variety of specialized operating systems and hardware arrangements are available to support SMP. Specific applications can benefit from SMP if the code allows multithreading.

SMP uses a single operating system and shares common memory and disk input/output resources. Both UNIX and Windows NT support SMP.

(2) Short for Simple Management Protocol, another name for SNMP2. SNMP2 is an enhanced version of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) with features required to support larger networks operating at high data transmission rates. SNMP2 also supports multiple network management workstations organized in a hierarchical fashion.