Coarse-grained vs fine-grained

LoveTW picture LoveTW · Sep 22, 2010 · Viewed 102.2k times · Source

What is the difference between coarse-grained and fine-grained?

I have searched these terms on Google, but I couldn't find what they mean.

Answer

Michael Petrotta picture Michael Petrotta · Sep 22, 2010

From Wikipedia (granularity):

Granularity is the extent to which a system is broken down into small parts, either the system itself or its description or observation. It is the extent to which a larger entity is subdivided. For example, a yard broken into inches has finer granularity than a yard broken into feet.

Coarse-grained systems consist of fewer, larger components than fine-grained systems; a coarse-grained description of a system regards large subcomponents while a fine-grained description regards smaller components of which the larger ones are composed.