Asymmetrical may refer to any of the following:

  1. In general, the word asymmetrical means that something has two sides that are not mirror images of each other. When referring to broadband Internet, the two “sides” are download and upload speeds.

Most connections are said to be asymmetrical because they have different download and upload speeds. For example, a cable modem has a faster download speed than its upload speed. However, a fiber connection is symmetrical as its download and upload speeds are the same.

  1. In computing, asymmetric multi-processing refers to using multiple processors in a way that does not treat all processors equally. Asymmetric processing was an approach used in some early multi-processor systems because it was an affordable way to increase computing power. In contrast, modern multi-processor systems use SMP (symmetric multi-processing), where all processors can access all the same resources, with none of them treated differently.
  • How to test the speed of your Internet connection.
  • Why is my Internet connection so slow?
  • Network and network card help and support.

In asymmetric multi-processing, processors take care of entirely different tasks. For instance, one CPU might work operating system tasks while another might handle programs run by the user. These processors might share access to the same memory, but fulfill entirely separate computing purposes.

CPU terms, Multiprocessing, Symmetrical