What are threads?

Answer 1

Many programming languages, operating systems, and other software development environments support what are called "threads" of execution. Threads are similar to processes, in that both represent a single sequence of instructions executed in parallel with other sequences, either by time slicing or multiprocessing. Threads are a way for a program to split itself into two or more simultaneously running tasks. (The name "thread" is by analogy with the way that a number of threads are interwoven together)

Answer 2

Processes can be scheduled independently and have (by default) distinct address spaces, so explicit coordination is needed for IPC. This tends to improve safety, as a bug in one process will probably not crash another process.

Threads can be scheduled independently and share a common address space, which makes implicit IPC straightforward (if you remember to avoid races by using locks) but which isn't good for safety when one thread is buggy.

Answer 3

Threads allow for multiple lines of execution in a program - your program can be doing more than one thing at a time.

If multiple processors are available, the threads can be distributed among them; thus the program will really be doing several things at the same time. In the case of a single processor, the threads of the highest priority will share processor time; since switching from one thread to another is fairly fast, it may seem as if they were working at the same time.

Multithreading makes it easier for a program to do some background processing, while it waits for user input for example. If the user presses a key, a higher-priority thread may be started to react to the key; but if there is no user input, the program may do some background processing instead. An interesting example is Microsoft Word, which does spell-checking in the background. While I don't know how they programmed this, multithreading seems the best way to do it.

Answer 4

advantage of threads is like running 2 concurrent processes. for example, now ur appln acts like a main thread and executes sequentially line over line. But when u start a thread in the middle,, the main thread i.e; the appl'ns thread executes as well as the thread started also executes the function that it has to execute,, both of which happen simultaneously. In short ur execution time will be reduced..

Answer 5

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