DIS-type systems have one coil pack for two cylinders. Its just like positive and negative. On half the engine the plugs fire tip to ground, like you would expect and the other half fires ground to tip. This is why I always go with double platinum on these systems. Since each fires for two cylinders, one of said cylinders is on the exhaust stroke and the other on compression, ready to fire. There is also Coil-On-Plug/Coil-Near-Plug which has one coil directly attached to each spark plug.