Acronym for symmetric multiprocessing. A computer architecture in which multiple processors share the same memory, which contains one copy of the operating system, one copy of any applications that are in use, and one copy of the data. Because the operating system divides the workload into tasks and assigns those tasks to whichever processors are free, SMP reduces transaction time. See also architecture, multiprocessing.

Short for symmetric multiprocessing server. A computer that is designed with the SMP architecture to improve its performance as a server in client/server applications. See also SMP.