How does Erlang pass messages between processes on the same node?

Question

Between nodes, message are (must be) passed over TCP/IP. However, by what mechanism are they passed between processes running on the same node? Is TCP/IP used in this case

Answer 1

"All data in messages between Erlang processes is copied, with the exception of refc binaries on the same Erlang node.":

http://erlang.org/doc/efficiency_guide/processes.html#id2265332