Threads & Processes

Threads & Processes

Essentially, thread and process refer to the same concept when discussing concurrent programming. They mean different (but related abstractions) in Operating Systems. We use the term process in our formal notation.

A number of simple laws apply to the concurrency operator ||.

Commutative: P || Q = Q || P

Associative: P || (Q || R) = (P || Q) || R

It follows that brackets can be omitted and

ordering is irrelevant.

P || Q || R = Q || P || R = R || P || Q

Transitive: P || Q and Q || R => P || R

If P is concurrent with Q and Q is concurrent with R

then P is concurrent with R.

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