7. Concurrency and Parallelism
Concurrency enables a computer to do many different things seemingly at the same time. For example, on a computer with one CPU core, the operating system rapidly changes which program is running on the single processor. In doing so, it interleaves execution of the programs, providing the illusion that the programs are running simultaneously.
Parallelism, in contrast, involves actually doing many different things at the same time. A computer with multiple CPU cores can execute multiple programs simultaneously. Each CPU core runs the instructions of a separate program, allowing each program to make forward progress during the same instant.
Within a single program, concurrency is a tool that makes it easier for programmers ...
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