[1] Due to its connection to slavery, the terminology is a subject of controversy and has been replaced with alternative terms in some cases.
A serial peripheral interface (SPI) bus typically has a single master controlling multiple slaves.
In 2020, Paul Vixie commented on his choice of words: I introduced the master/slave terminology in RFC 2136, because I needed names for the roles in an AXFR/IXFR transaction, and the zone transfer hierarchy could be more than one layer deep, such that a server might initiate some AXFR/IXFR's to the "primary master" but then respond to AXFR/IXFR's from other servers.
[14] The Black Lives Matter movement in the United States sparked renewed discussion, and terminology changes occurred in 2020.
[16][3] None-the-less, various alternate and generally context sensitive terms have been proposed including:[15][3][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] In 2003, after receiving a discrimination complaint from a county employee, the County of Los Angeles in California asked that manufacturers, suppliers and contractors stop using master and slave terminology on products.
[4] Python switched to main, parent, and server; and worker, child, and helper, depending on context.
[4][27] The Linux kernel adopted a similar policy to use more specific terms in new code and documentation.
[18][28] In July 2018, Google's developer style guide was updated to include avoiding the term master in software documentation, especially in combination with slave.