What's the difference between OracleServiceORAL service(on Window XP) and Oracle instance?

I want to know what's the difference between OracleServiceORAL service(on Window XP) and Ora开发者_开发百科cle instance.

Great thanks.

It is probably splitting hairs on semantics. An instance is a bunch of processes/threads and memory interacting with the database files. A service is how that is implemented on Windows.

I would probably use the concept of a Service when talking to a Windows sysadmin/developer, but Instance when talking to an Oracle admin/developer.