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Multitasking is a common feature of computer operating systems since at least the 1960s. It allows more efficient use of the computer hardware; when a program is waiting for some external event such as a user input or an input/output transfer with a peripheral to complete, the central processor can still be used with another program.
Even though it is very difficult to further speed up a single thread or single program, most computer systems are actually multitasking among multiple threads or programs. Thus, techniques that improve the throughput of all tasks result in overall performance gains. Two major techniques for throughput computing are multithreading and ...
Concurrency is pervasive in computing, occurring from low-level hardware on a single chip to worldwide networks. Examples follow. At the programming language level: Channel; Coroutine; Futures and promises; At the operating system level: Computer multitasking, including both cooperative multitasking and preemptive multitasking
Bob Bemer used the term time-sharing in his 1957 article "How to consider a computer" in Automatic Control Magazine and it was reported the same year he used the term time-sharing in a presentation. [6] [8] [9] In a paper published in December 1958, W. F. Bauer wrote that "The computers would handle a number of problems concurrently ...
The process issues a system call (sometimes called a software interrupt); for example, an I/O request occurs requesting to access a file on a hard disk. A hardware interrupt occurs; for example, a key was pressed on the keyboard, or a timer runs out (used in preemptive multitasking).
Multitasking may refer to: Computer multitasking, the concurrent execution of multiple tasks (also known as processes) over a certain period of time Cooperative multitasking; Pre-emptive multitasking; Human multitasking, the apparent performance by an individual of handling more than one task at the same time
[[{{#File:Atanasoff-Berry Computer at Durhum Center.jpg|thumb|Atanasoff–Berry computer, the first computer with parallel processing [1]]] Instruction-level parallelism (ILP) is the parallel or simultaneous execution of a sequence of instructions in a computer program. More specifically, ILP refers to the average number of instructions run per ...
In the sense of "unit of execution", in some operating systems, a task is synonymous with a process [citation needed], and in others with a thread [citation needed].In non-interactive execution (batch processing), a task is a unit of execution within a job, [1] [2] with the task itself typically a process.