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Threads (computer Science)
In computer science, a thread of execution is the smallest sequence of programmed instructions that can be managed independently by a scheduler, which is typically a part of the operating system. In many cases, a thread is a component of a process. The multiple threads of a given process may be executed concurrently (via multithreading capabilities), sharing resources such as memory, while different processes do not share these resources. In particular, the threads of a process share its executable code and the values of its dynamically allocated variables and non- thread-local global variables at any given time. The implementation of threads and processes differs between operating systems. History Threads made an early appearance under the name of "tasks" in IBM's batch processing operating system, OS/360, in 1967. It provided users with three available configurations of the OS/360 control system, of which Multiprogramming with a Variable Number of Tasks (MVT) wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Subroutine
In computer programming, a function (also procedure, method, subroutine, routine, or subprogram) is a callable unit of software logic that has a well-defined interface and behavior and can be invoked multiple times. Callable units provide a powerful programming tool. The primary purpose is to allow for the decomposition of a large and/or complicated problem into chunks that have relatively low cognitive load and to assign the chunks meaningful names (unless they are anonymous). Judicious application can reduce the cost of developing and maintaining software, while increasing its quality and reliability. Callable units are present at multiple levels of abstraction in the programming environment. For example, a programmer may write a function in source code that is compiled to machine code that implements similar semantics. There is a callable unit in the source code and an associated one in the machine code, but they are different kinds of callable units with different impl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Preemption (computing)
In computing, preemption is the act performed by an external scheduler — without assistance or cooperation from the task — of temporarily interrupting an executing task, with the intention of resuming it at a later time. This preemptive scheduler usually runs in the most privileged protection ring, meaning that interruption and then resumption are considered highly secure actions. Such changes to the currently executing task of a processor are known as context switching. User mode and kernel mode In any given system design, some operations performed by the system may not be preemptable. This usually applies to kernel functions and service interrupts which, if not permitted to run to completion, would tend to produce race conditions resulting in deadlock. Barring the scheduler from preempting tasks while they are processing kernel functions simplifies the kernel design at the expense of system responsiveness. The distinction between user mode and kernel mode, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Call Stack
In computer science, a call stack is a Stack (abstract data type), stack data structure that stores information about the active subroutines and block (programming), inline blocks of a computer program. This type of stack is also known as an execution stack, program stack, control stack, run-time stack, or machine stack, and is often shortened to simply the "stack". Although maintenance of the call stack is important for the proper functioning of most software, the details are normally hidden and automatic in high-level programming languages. Many computer instruction sets provide special instructions for manipulating stacks. A call stack is used for several related purposes, but the main reason for having one is to keep track of the point to which each active subroutine should return control when it finishes executing. An active subroutine is one that has been called, but is yet to complete execution, after which control should be handed back to the point of call. Such activatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Scheduling (computing)
In computing, scheduling is the action of assigning resources to perform tasks. The resources may be processors, network links or expansion cards. The tasks may be threads, processes or data flows. The scheduling activity is carried out by a mechanism called a scheduler. Schedulers are often designed so as to keep all computer resources busy (as in load balancing), allow multiple users to share system resources effectively, or to achieve a target quality-of-service. Scheduling is fundamental to computation itself, and an intrinsic part of the execution model of a computer system; the concept of scheduling makes it possible to have computer multitasking with a single central processing unit (CPU). Goals A scheduler may aim at one or more goals, for example: * maximizing '' throughput'' (the total amount of work completed per time unit); * minimizing '' wait time'' (time from work becoming ready until the first point it begins execution); * minimizing '' latency'' o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Translation Lookaside Buffer
A translation lookaside buffer (TLB) is a memory CPU cache, cache that stores the recent translations of virtual memory address to a physical memory Memory_address, location. It is used to reduce the time taken to access a user memory location. It can be called an address-translation cache. It is a part of the chip's Memory management unit, memory-management unit (MMU). A TLB may reside between the Central processing unit, CPU and the CPU cache, between CPU cache and the main memory or between the different levels of the multi-level cache. The majority of desktop, laptop, and server processors include one or more TLBs in the memory-management hardware, and it is nearly always present in any processor that uses Memory paging, paged or Memory segmentation, segmented virtual memory. The TLB is sometimes implemented as content-addressable memory (CAM). The CAM search key is the virtual address, and the search result is a physical address. If the requested address is present in the TLB ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Context Switching
In computing, a context switch is the process of storing the state of a process or thread, so that it can be restored and resume execution at a later point, and then restoring a different, previously saved, state. This allows multiple processes to share a single central processing unit (CPU), and is an essential feature of a multiprogramming or multitasking operating system. In a traditional CPU, each process – a program in execution – uses the various CPU registers to store data and hold the current state of the running process. However, in a multitasking operating system, the operating system switches between processes or threads to allow the execution of multiple processes simultaneously. For every switch, the operating system must save the state of the currently running process, followed by loading the next process state, which will run on the CPU. This sequence of operations that stores the state of the running process and loads the following running process is called a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Interprocess Communication
In computer science, interprocess communication (IPC) is the sharing of data between running processes in a computer system. Mechanisms for IPC may be provided by an operating system. Applications which use IPC are often categorized as clients and servers, where the client requests data and the server responds to client requests. Many applications are both clients and servers, as commonly seen in distributed computing. IPC is very important to the design process for microkernels and nanokernels, which reduce the number of functionalities provided by the kernel. Those functionalities are then obtained by communicating with servers via IPC, leading to a large increase in communication when compared to a regular monolithic kernel. IPC interfaces generally encompass variable analytic framework structures. These processes ensure compatibility between the multi-vector protocols upon which IPC models rely. An IPC mechanism is either synchronous or asynchronous. Synchronization pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Process Isolation
Process isolation is a set of different hardware and software technologies designed to protect each process from other processes on the operating system. It does so by preventing process A from writing to process B. Process isolation can be implemented with virtual address space, where process A's address space is different from process B's address space – preventing A from writing onto B. Security is easier to enforce by disallowing inter-process memory access, in contrast with less secure architectures such as DOS in which any process can write to any memory in any other process. Limited inter-process communication In a system with process isolation, limited (controlled) interaction between processes may still be allowed over inter-process communication (IPC) channels such as shared memory, local sockets or Internet sockets. In this scheme, all of the process' memory is isolated from other processes except where the process is allowing input from collaborating processes. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Process Control Block
A process control block (PCB), also sometimes called a process descriptor, is a data structure used by a computer operating system to store all the information about a process. When a process is created (initialized or installed), the operating system creates a corresponding process control block, which specifies and tracks the process state (i.e. new, ready, running, waiting or terminated). Since it is used to track process information, the PCB plays a key role in context switching. An operating system kernel stores PCBs in a process table. The current working directory of a process is one of the properties that the kernel stores in the process's PCB. Role The role of the PCBs is central in process management: they are accessed and/or modified by most utilities, particularly those involved with scheduling and resource management. Structure In multitasking operating systems, the PCB stores data needed for correct and efficient process management. Though the details of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Handle (computing)
In computer programming, a handle is an abstract reference to a resource that is used when application software references blocks of memory or objects that are managed by another system like a database or an operating system. A resource handle can be an opaque identifier, in which case it is often an integer number (often an array index in an array or "table" that is used to manage that type of resource), or it can be a pointer that allows access to further information. Common resource handles include file descriptors, network sockets, database connections, process identifiers (PIDs), and job IDs. PIDs and job IDs are explicitly visible integers; while file descriptors and sockets (which are often implemented as a form of file descriptor) are represented as integers, they are typically considered opaque. In traditional implementations, file descriptors are indices into a (per-process) file descriptor table, thence a (system-wide) file table. Comparison to pointers Whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Resource (computer Science)
In computing, a system resource, or simply resource, is any physical or virtual component of limited availability that is accessible to a computer. All connected devices and internal system components are resources. Virtual system resources include files (concretely file handles), network connections (concretely network sockets), and memory areas. Managing resources is referred to as resource management, and includes both preventing resource leaks (not releasing a resource when a process has finished using it) and dealing with resource contention (when multiple processes wish to access a limited resource). Computing resources are used in cloud computing to provide services through networks. Major resource types * Interrupt request (IRQ) lines * Direct memory access (DMA) channels * Port-mapped I/O * Memory-mapped I/O * Locks * External devices * External memory or objects, such as memory managed in native code, from Java; or objects in the Document Object Model ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Light-weight Process
In computer operating systems, a light-weight process (LWP) is a means of achieving multitasking. In the traditional meaning of the term, as used in Unix System V and Solaris, a LWP runs in user space on top of a single kernel thread and shares its address space and system resources with other LWPs within the same process. Multiple user-level threads, managed by a thread library, can be placed on top of one or many LWPs - allowing multitasking to be done at the user level, which can have some performance benefits. In some operating systems, there is no separate LWP layer between kernel threads and user threads. This means that user threads are implemented directly on top of kernel threads. In those contexts, the term "light-weight process" typically refers to kernel threads and the term "threads" can refer to user threads. On Linux, user threads are implemented by allowing certain processes to share resources, which sometimes leads to these processes to be called "light wei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |