In architectures with global knowledge, different modules may read and/or write to common database(s). Often this knowledge is used to representing a world-view of what the agent believes is true in its environment.
An advantage of having global knowledge is that different modules may share their data and abilities for more intelligent combined behavior. This makes modular architectures more effective. Also, such knowledge is necessary for representing world-views: without it an architecture may only react to its present sensor readings (e.g. Subsumption Architecture.).
The disadvantages of having global knowledge are the expense of having to maintain its integrity (Truth-maintenance), and the danger of acting on data that is actually false.
A related property is knowledge homogenetity, which is a measure of how similar all knowledge is represented by the architecture.
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