Uniform Memory Access (UMA) is a network architecture where all processors have equal access to memory. Each processor has a personal memory cache, and less programming is required. UMA is used in networks with two or more users, and standalone computers have access to uniform memory.
Uniform Memory Access (UMA) is a type of network architecture that allows all processors to make equal use of memory chips for storage and processing. Although there are typically many processors in a network, each processor is granted the same access as every other processor in the system. Standalone computers can be said to have uniform memory access, because most computers have only one processor, but this term is more appropriate for networks with two or more users requesting memory at the same time. Each processor is also assigned a personal memory cache, which helps speed up processing for the individual user.
In a network, there are typically many computers competing for access to computer memory at the same time, and there are several computer architectures built to facilitate this problem. With uniform memory access, each processor is able to use the available memory. Other methods set the processors to take the closest memory, but UMA simply bumps the processor to whatever physical memory is available.
With other network systems, processors may only be able to access memory after previous processors have finished accessing memory, or some processors may have higher authority and are aware of better memory access . In the uniform memory access system, every computer is granted equal access to physical memory and every processor can use the same amount of memory. This means that less programming is required, because the processors are not differentiated; this also prevents users with low authorization from waiting to process a task.
Standalone computers or computers not connected to a network can be considered to have access to uniform memory, but the term is redundant in this situation. Most standalone computers have only one main processor, so there would be no other processors to contend with for physical memory. For this reason, UMA is typically used to describe a network where two or more people are trying to process tasks and access memory at the same time.
In addition to having common memory access, each processor with uniform memory access has its own cache. This tends to take up more memory than networked systems that have a shared cache, but it can also be more useful for each individual user. The cache loads recent memory quickly, and since most users will have different tasks within the network, this will serve each user rather than poorly serving the entire network.
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