© Thomas Kunz 2000
SCE 574
183
Concurrency
äWhat is
concurrency
äPermit many
activities to proceed in parallel
äThe activities synchronize and communicate at well defined points
äWhy
concurrency?
äEasier to describe a system using several independent cohesive activities than to have one monolithic coupled function
äLink the activities
using well-defined interaction mechanisms
äExploit multiple
resources
äFor example: many
processors
äHow can we time
share between activities?
äNeed to switch
between concurrent activities
äSwitching is
referred to as context switching
äExamples of
concurrent programming paradigms
äEvent-driven
environments
äCo-routines
äThreads