* More general wider-scale hardware architectures, such as [[cluster computing]] and [[NUMA]] architectures.
* The less formal usage refers to a description of the requirements (especially speeds and interconnection requirements) or design implementation for the various parts of a computer. (Such as [[computer memory|memory]], [[motherboard]], [[electronic]] [[peripheral]]s, or most commonly the [[Central Processing Unit|CPU]].)
* Architecture is often defined as the set of machine attributes that a programmer should understand in order to successfulysuccessfully program the specific computer (i.e., being able to reason about what the program will do when executed). For example, part of the architecture are the instructions and the width of operands manipulated by them. Similarly, the frequency at which the system operates is not part of the architecture. This definition reveals the two main considerations for computer architects: (1) Design hardware that behaves as the programmers think it should. (2) Utilize existing implementation technologies (e.g., semiconductors) to build the best computer possible (best can be defined in many different ways as described in ''Design Goals''). The latter consideration is often referred to as microarchitecture.
