Scalability

2 definitions found

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  scalability
       n : the quality of being scalable

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  scalability


       
          How well a solution to some problem will work when the size of
          the problem increases.
       
          For example, a central {server} of some kind with ten
          {client}s may perform adequately but with a thousand clients
          it might fail to meet response time requirements.  In this
          case, the average response time probably scales linearly with
          the number of clients, we say it has a {complexity} of O(N)
          ("order N") but there are problems with other complexities.
          E.g. if we want N nodes in a network to be able to communicate
          with each other, we could connect each one to a central
          exchange, requiring O(N) wires or we could provide a direct
          connection between each pair, requiring O(N^2) wires (the
          exact number or formula is not usually so important as the
          highest power of N involved).
       
          (1995-03-29)