THREADS IN JAVA
What is a thread?
- 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.
- It is a single sequential flow of execution of tasks of a process so it is also known as thread of
execution or thread of control.
- There can be more than one thread inside a process.
- Each thread of the same process makes use of a separate program counter and a stack of activation
records and control blocks. Thread is often referred to as a lightweight process.
- All the threads of the same process share the same CS and DS but have their own ES and SS.
- For example, in a browser, many tabs can be viewed as threads. MS Word uses many threads -
formatting text from one thread, processing input from another thread, etc.
- Two types of threads are there:
o User level: A user thread is an entity used by programmers to handle multiple flows of
controls within a program. The API for handling user threads is provided by the threads
library. A user thread only exists within a process; a user thread in process A cannot
reference a user thread in process B. The library uses a proprietary interface to handle kernel
threads for executing user threads.
o Kernel level: A kernel thread is a kernel entity, like processes and interrupt handlers; it is the
entity handled by the system scheduler. A kernel thread runs within a process, but can be
referenced by any other thread in the system. The programmer has no direct control over
these threads, unless you are writing kernel extensions or device drivers.
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