Uniform Memory Access
Encyclopedia
Uniform Memory Access is a shared memory
Shared memory
In computing, shared memory is memory that may be simultaneously accessed by multiple programs with an intent to provide communication among them or avoid redundant copies. Depending on context, programs may run on a single processor or on multiple separate processors...

 architecture used in parallel computers.

All the processors in the UMA model share the physical memory uniformly. In a UMA architecture, access time to a memory location is independent of which processor makes the request or which memory chip contains the transferred data.

Uniform Memory Access computer architectures are often contrasted with Non-Uniform Memory Access
Non-Uniform Memory Access
Non-Uniform Memory Access is a computer memory design used in Multiprocessing, where the memory access time depends on the memory location relative to a processor...

 (NUMA) architectures.

In the UMA architecture, each processor may use a private cache. Peripherals are also shared in some fashion, The UMA model is suitable for general purpose and time sharing applications by multiple users. It can be used to speed up the execution of a single large program in time critical applications.
Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) is a computer architecture in which graphics chips are built into the motherboard and part of the computer's main memory is used for video memory.

Types of UMA architectures

  1. UMA using bus-based Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) architectures
  2. UMA using crossbar switches
  3. UMA using Multistage interconnection networks
    Multistage interconnection networks
    Multistage interconnection networks are a class of high-speed computer networks usually composed of processing elements on one end of the network and memory elements on the other end, connected together by switching elements...

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