A computer system in which processing is performed by several separate computers linked by a communications network.
The term often refers to any computer system supported by a network, but more properly refers to a system in which each computer is chosen to handle a specific workload and the network supports the system as a whole. Each computer contributes to the completion of a common task by completing one or more subtasks independently of its peers and then reporting the results from these subtasks. All this is totally transparent to the users; all they see are the results of the process.
See also client/server architecture.