So I'm a little confused by this terminology.
Everyone refers to "Asynchronous" computing as running different processes on seperate threads, which gives the illusion that these processes are running at the same time.
This is not the definition of the word asynchronous.
a⋅syn⋅chro⋅nous
–adjective
1. not occurring at the same time.
2. (of a computer or other electrical machine) having each operation started only after the preceding operation is completed.
What am I not understanding here?
It's like: Flammable, Inflammable ( which mean the same thing )
Seriously -- it's just one of those quirks of the English language. It doesn't really make sense. You can try to explain it, but it would be just as easy to justify the reverse meanings.
Many of the answers here are not correct. IN-dependently has a beginning particle that says NOT dependently, just like A-synchronous, but the meaning of dependent and synchronous are not the same! :D
So three dependent persons would wait for an order, because they are dependent to the order, but they wait, so they are not synchronous.
In english and any other language with common roots with a, syn and chrono (italian: asincrono; spanish: asincrónico; french: asynchrone; greek: a= not syn=together chronos=time)it means exactly the opposite.
The terminology is UTTERLY counter-intiutive. Async functions ARE synchronous, they happen at the same time, and that's their power. They DO NOT wait, they DO NOT depend, they DO NOT hold the user waiting, but all those NOTs refer to anything but synchronicity :)
The only answer possibly right is the CLOCK one, although it is still confusing. My personal interpretation is this story:
"A professor has an office, and he makes SYNCHRONOUS CALLS for students to come. He says out loud in the main university hall: 'Hey guys who wants to talk to me should come at 10 in the morning tomorrow.', or simply puts a sign saying the same stuff.
RESULT: at 10 in the morning you see a long queue. People had the same time so they came in in the same moment and they got "piled up in the process". So the professor thinks it would be nice for students not to waste time in the queue (and do synchronous operations, that is, do parallel stuff in their lives at the same time, and that's where the confusion comes).
He decides students can substitute him in making ASYNCHRONOUS CALLS, that is, every time a student ends talking with him, the students may, e.g., call another student saying the professor is free to talk, in a room where students may do whatever they like in the meantime. So every student does not have a single SYNCHRONOUS CALL (10 in the morning, the same time for all) but they have 10, 10.10, 10.18, 10.27.. etc. according to the needed time for each discussion in the professor office."
Is that the meaning of having the same clock, @Guffa?