Synchronous

What Does Synchronous Mean?

Synchronous refers to events and processes that occur simultaneously or have dependencies relating to time or another event that relies on time.

Techopedia Explains Synchronous

In telecommunications. synchronous refers to signals that are sent and received with specific timing. This means that both the sender and receiver use the same clock cycle and know exactly when the signal is sent and when it should be received, essentially working in fixed time intervals, so an error results only when signals are not sent or received at expected times.

In terms of data processing, synchronous refers to blocking communications (synchronous I/O) that occur on the same thread as other computations, thereby preventing continuation until these communications are completed.

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Margaret Rouse

Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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