Monolithic system

For the American semiconductor company, see MoSys.

A monolithic system is a system that is integrated into one whole, analogous to a monolith. The phrase can have slightly different meanings in the contexts of computer software and hardware.

In application software

In application software, software is called "monolithic" if it has a monolithic architecture, in which functionally distinguishable aspects (for example data input and output, data processing, error handling, and the user interface) are all interwoven, rather than containing architecturally separate components.^[1] Software systems like this are examples of monolithic applications.^[2]

In hardware

An electronic hardware system, such as a multi-core processor, is called "monolithic" if its components are integrated together in a single integrated circuit. Note that such a system may consist of architecturally separate components – in a multi-core system, each core forms a separate component – as long as they are realized on a single die.^{[citation needed]}

In system software

In system software, a monolithic kernel is an operating system (OS) architecture where the entire OS is working in kernel space.