What Does Distributed Computing (DCI) Mean?

Distributed computing refers to a computer science field that researches distributed systems. A distributed system includes various computers that connect and communicate by means of a computer network. The computers communicate with one another to accomplish a common goal.

Techopedia Explains Distributed Computing (DCI)

Distributed systems include various possible configurations, such as personal computers, mainframes, minicomputers, workstations, etc. A computer program that operates in a distributed system is known as a distributed program, whereas the procedure for writing such programs are called distributed programming.

Distributed computing systems could operate on hardware provided by multiple vendors. It can make use of many different standards-based software components. These systems are self-sufficient and do not rely too much on the fundamental software. They are able to use a variety of communications protocols as well as operate on multiple operating systems. In order to carry out inter-machine communications, they use TCP/IP or SNA on Ethernet or Token Ring.