Multi-threading part 1
In upcoming blogs, I’ll try to share my learnings on one of the most important concept in operating system i.e. multi-threading. It is one of key concept in java also. But, before diving into details of multi-threading let us understand why this concept came, what is multi-tasking systems and why are they useful.
Multi-tasking
Executing several tasks simultaneously is the concept of multi-tasking. There are two types of multi-tasking:
- Process-based multi-tasking
- Thread-based multi-tasking
Process-based Multi-tasking
Executing several tasks simultaneously where each task is a separate independent program(process) is called process-based multi-tasking. e.g. While typing a java program in the editor, we can listen our favorite spotify playlist from same system. At the same time we can download a file. All these tasks will be executed simultaneously and independent of each other. Hence, it is process-based multi-tasking. Process based multi-tasking is best suitable at OS level.
Thread-based Multi-tasking
Executing several task simultaneously where each task is a separate independent part of the same program is called thread-based multi-tasking and each independent part is called a thread. Thread-based multi-tasking is best suitable at programmatic level.
Whether it is process-based or thread-based, the main objective of multi-tasking is to reduce response-time of the system and to improve performance.
Important application areas of multi-threading are:
- To develop multi-media graphics.
- To develop animations.
- To develop games.
- To develop web-servers and application servers etc.
When compared with old languages, developing multi-threaded applications in java is very easy because java provides inbuilt support for multi-threading with rich API like Thread, ThreadGroup, Runnable, etc. In the next blog, I’ll try to share my learning on methods to create a thread in java.