Multithreading Tutorial

Back in the old days a computer had a single CPU, and was only capable of executing a single program at a time. Later came multitasking which meant that computers could execute multiple programs (AKA tasks or processes) at the same time. It wasn't really "at the same time" though. The single CPU was shared between the programs. The operating system would switch between the programs running, executing each of them for a little while before switching.

Along with multitasking came new challenges for software developers. Programs can no longer assume to have all the CPU time available, nor all memory or any other computer resources. A "good citizen" program should release all resources it is no longer using, so other programs can use them.

Later yet came multithreading which mean that you could have multiple threads of execution inside the same program. A thread of execution can be thought of as a CPU executing the program. When you have multiple threads executing the same program, it is like having multiple CPUs execute within the same program.

Multithreading can be a great way to increase the performance of some types of programs. However, mulithreading is even more challenging than multitasking. The threads are executing within the same program and are hence reading and writing the same memory simultanously. This can result in errors not seen in a singlethreaded program. Some of these errors may not be seen on single CPU machines, because two threads never really execute "simultanously". Modern computers, though, come with multi core CPUs, and even with multiple CPUs too. This means that separate threads can be executed by separate cores or CPUs simultanously.