The hardware that supports Teradata Database software is based on Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) technology. The hardware can be combined with a communications network that connects the SMP systems to form Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) systems. The components of the SMP and MPP hardware platforms include the following.
| Component | Description | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Processor Node | A hardware assembly containing several, tightly coupled, central processing units (CPUs) in an SMP configuration. An SMP node is connected to one or more disk arrays with the following installed on the node:
An MPP configuration is a configuration of two or more loosely coupled SMP nodes. |
Serves as the hardware platform upon which the database software operates. |
| BYNET | Hardware interprocessor network to link nodes on an MPP system. Single-node SMP systems use a software-configured virtual BYNET driver to implement BYNET services.
|
Implements broadcast, multicast, or point-to-point communication between processors, depending on the situation. |
These platforms use virtual processors (vprocs) that run a set of software processes on a node under the Parallel Database Extensions (PDE). For information about PDE, see Parallel Database Extensions.
Vprocs provide the parallel environment that enables Teradata Database to run on SMP and MPP systems. For more information on vprocs, see Virtual Processors.