Industry Articles
Tasks and scheduling-November 21, 2016 |
Colin Walls, Mentor Graphics
November 18, 2016
Tasks, Threads and Processes
We have already considered the multi-tasking concept – multiple quasi-independent programs apparently running at the same time, under the control of an operating system. Before we look at tasks in more detail, we need to straighten out some more terminology.
We use the word “task” – and I will continue to do so – but it does not have a very precise meaning. Two other terms – “thread” and “process” – are more specific and we should investigate what they mean and how they are differentiated.