Context Switch
The operating-system transition that saves one execution context and restores another so the CPU can run a different thread or process.
Operating-System Context
An operating-system context switch saves one execution context and restores another so the processor can run a different thread or process. Frequent blocking, high runnable-thread counts, and contention can increase scheduler work and disturb cache and TLB locality.
Scheduling Boundary
Not every task handoff is a full kernel context switch. User-space coroutines and runtime-managed virtual threads can switch logical tasks without the same costs as switching platform threads at the operating-system scheduler.
Related Operating-System Concepts
- Scheduler
- Virtual Thread
- Thread Pool
- CPU Cache