Multitasking, multiprocessing, and multithreaded

Multitasking, multiprocessing, and multithreaded

Multitasking:

Multitasking means the operating system supports more than one program at a time. Windows 3 .x supports what is called cooperative multitasking, which means that the programs running on the PC are expected to give way when another program requests use of a resource. If a program hogs a certain

resource, there is no way of policing it. The other programs have to wait until the program releases the resource needed. Windows 95 and 98 support preemptive multitasking , which gives the operating

system the authority to suspend a program that is monopolizing a needed resource.

Multiprocessing: 

Multiprocessing means that a computer has more than one processor. This is not anything you need to worry about for the OS Technologies exam, but the term does come up on the Core Hardware exam.

Multithreading: 

Multithreading means that a single program has the ability to create ( spawn is the technical term) several activities under its control that all run concurrently. The example usually given for this is a word processor that can run a repagination process while it is also running a spell checker and a grammar checker.