PPT Slide
Switching Between Processes
- Important to protect CPU by switching control between processes
- A context switch involves the saving & restoring of all relevant process data (control registers, user registers, memory pointers, etc.)
- Notice how the context switch mechanism is a combination of what parts of the context the hardware interrupt does and what the operating system does (Figure 5.6)
- Notice how the standard single-process flow of control (Figure 5.7) differs from the flow of control between multiple processes (Figure 5.8)