The Win32 API provides remote procedure calls (RPC) to enable applications to call functions remotely. With RPC, communication with other processes becomes as easy as calling a function. RPC operates between processes on a single computer or on different computers on a network. One way to think of RPC is as a DLL that works on a network.
The RPC provided by the Win32 API is compliant with the Open Software Foundation (OSF) Distributed Computing Environment (DCE). This means that RPC applications written by using the Win32 API are able to communicate with other RPC applications running with other operating systems that support DCE. RPC automatically supports data conversion to account for different hardware architectures and for byte-ordering between dissimilar environments.
The Win32 software development kit includes RPC libraries that support MS-DOS-hosted RPC clients. With this facility, a Windows NT server, for example, can provide service to many MS-DOS clients through RPC.
RPC clients and servers are tightly coupled but still maintain high performance. Windows makes extensive use of RPC to facilitate a client-server relationship between different parts of the operating system.
Key Point RPC provides IPC with a function interface, with support for automatic data conversion and for communications with other operating systems. Using RPC, a developer can create high-performance, tightly coupled distributed applications. For more information, see the Microsoft RPC Components.