The following diagram illustrates Teradata's architecture:

Teradata's architecture is based on MPP (massively parallel processing). In general, it can be divided into two parts i.e., storage architectures and RETRIEVAL architectures. In total, the architecture consists of FOUR components, namely, a parsing engine, BYNET, AMPs, and disks. The first two components make up the storage architecture, and the last two are retrieval architecture components. 

• Parsing Engine (PE): The Parsing Engine receives client queries and prepares an EFFICIENT execution plan to execute/run SQL queries. As soon as a user executes a SQL query, it is first connected to the PE (Parsing Engine). The PE PERFORMS the following functions: 
  • Verifies whether the queries have syntax errors. 
  • Determines whether or not the objects utilized by the SQL query exist. 
  • Prepares execution plans for these queries and then sends them to BYNET. 
  • Get the results of the SQL query from the AMPs and send it to the client.
• Access Module Processors (AMPs): It is a virtual processor that is connected to PE via BYNET. Each AMP contains its own disk allowing it to read and write data from disks.  As such, it is referred to as SHARED nothing architecture. After receiving the data and execution plan from Parsing Engine, AMPs perform any data type conversion, aggregation, filtering, and sorting, and further write (store) data to the corresponding disks. When the query is fired, all AMPs work together to give back the data. 
• BYNETs: BYNET functions as a communication channel between PEs and AMPs. This component receives the execution plan from the parsing engine and passes it on to the AMPs. Teradata has two BYNETs, named BYNET 0 and BYNET 1, but we refer to them as a single system. Reason for having 2 BYNETs:   
  • The second BYNET can take over if the first BYNET fails.   
  • Both BYNETs can be made functional when data volume is large, which will enhance communication between PEs and AMPs, and therefore speed up the process. 
• Disks: These are Virtual Disks offered by Teradata for each AMP. Vdisk, or Virtual Disk, is the storage area of each AMP.