Explain the concept of thread, Computer Engineering

Assignment Help:

The Concept of Thread

A thread is a sequential flow of control within a process. A process is able to have one or more threads. Threads have their own register-values and program-counter but they share memory space and other resources of the process. Every process begins with a single thread. Through the execution, other threads can be created as and when required. Similar to processes, every thread has an execution state (terminated, ready, blocked or running). A thread has right to use the memory address space and resources of its process. Threads have similar life cycles as processes do. A single processor system may support concurrency by switching execution among two or more threads. A multi processor system may support parallel concurrency by executing a separate thread on every processor. There are three fundamental techniques in concurrent programming languages for terminating and creating threads: 

  • Unsynchronised creation and termination - In this mode threads are created and terminated by means of library functions for example START_PROCESS, CREATE_PROCESS, START_THREAD, CREATE_THREAD and. Thus because of these function calls a new thread or process is created and starts executing independent of its parents.
  • Synchronized termination and unsynchronised creation: This manner uses two instructions: JOIN and FORK. The FORK instruction creates a new thread or process. When the parent needs the child's (thread or process) result, it calls JOIN instruction. At this junction two processes (threads) are synchronised.
  • Synchronised termination and creation: The most often system construct to implement synchronization is COBEGIN...COEND. The threads among the COBEGIN...COEND construct are implemented in parallel. The termination of parent-child is suspended till all child threads are terminated.

We can think of a thread as essentially a lightweight process. Though, threads propose a number of advantages over processes. The advantages are as follows:

a)  It does not take so much time to create and terminate a new thread than to create and terminate a process. The reason is that a newly created thread uses the current process address space.  

b)  It does not take so much time to switch between two threads within a common process, partly since the newly created thread uses current process address space. 

c)  Less communication overheads -- communicating between the threads of one process is simple since the threads share amongst other entities the address space. So, data generated by one thread is right away available to all other threads.


Related Discussions:- Explain the concept of thread

How to create a rollover image, Q. How to Create a Rollover Image? A ro...

Q. How to Create a Rollover Image? A rollover image is an image whose display changes when pointer passes ('rolls') over it. You will use Dreamweaver's Insert Rollover Image co

How many services are supported by internet, How many services are supporte...

How many services are supported by internet? The firewall software assists at least Internet services: HTTP, FTP, Gopher, SMTP and Telnet. DNS name resolution, preferably th

How do you populate data into a multiple line field, How do you populate da...

How do you populate data into a multiple line field? To populate data into a multiple line field, an index is added to the field name to show which line is to be populated by t

Test, what persistance shouold i use

what persistance shouold i use

Define seek time and latency time, Define seek time and latency time. ...

Define seek time and latency time.  The time taken by the head to move to the appropriate cylinder or track is known as seek time. Once the head is at right track, it must wai

An append structure with pooled or cluster tables, Can we include customizi...

Can we include customizing include or an append structure with Pooled or Cluster tables? No.

Develop a program octal to hexadecimal, Q.  Develop a Menu driven program w...

Q.  Develop a Menu driven program with following menu: 1.  Octal to Decimal 2.  Octal to Hexadecimal 3.  Octal to Binary

What is the role of a controller in an mvc application, The controller resp...

The controller responds to user interactions, with the application, by selecting the act method to implement and also selecting the view to render.

Different industries which use this marketing tool, What are the different ...

What are the different industries which use this marketing tool? Ans) Many dissimilar companies can use this tool for developing their business plan but it is often three main

Define restoring method, Define restoring method? The hardware method j...

Define restoring method? The hardware method just explained is called the restoring method. The reason for this name is that the partial reminder is restored by adding the divi

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd