What is the difference between a thread/process/task?
Thread vs Process vs Task – Understanding the Differences
processtaskterminology
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Both processes and threads are independent sequences of execution. The typical difference is that threads (of the same process) run in a shared memory space, while processes run in separate memory spaces.
I'm not sure what "hardware" vs "software" threads you might be referring to. Threads are an operating environment feature, rather than a CPU feature (though the CPU typically has operations that make threads efficient).
Erlang uses the term "process" because it does not expose a shared-memory multiprogramming model. Calling them "threads" would imply that they have shared memory.
In computer science terms, a Task is a future or a promise. (Some people use those two terms synonymously, some use them differently, nobody can agree on a precise definition.) Basically, a Task<T> "promises" to return you a T, but not right now honey, I'm kinda busy, why don't you come back later?
A Thread is a way of fulfilling that promise. But not every Task needs a brand-new Thread. (In fact, creating a thread is often undesirable, because doing so is much more expensive than re-using an existing thread from the thread pool. More on that in a moment.) If the value you are waiting for comes from the filesystem or a database or the network, then there is no need for a thread to sit around and wait for the data when it can be servicing other requests. Instead, the Task might register a callback to receive the value(s) when they're ready.
In particular, the Task does not say why it is that it takes such a long time to return the value. It might be that it takes a long time to compute, or it might be that it takes a long time to fetch. Only in the former case would you use a Thread to run a Task. (In .NET, threads are freaking expensive, so you generally want to avoid them as much as possible and really only use them if you want to run multiple heavy computations on multiple CPUs. For example, in Windows, a thread weighs 12 KiByte (I think), in Linux, a thread weighs as little as 4 KiByte, in Erlang/BEAM even just 400 Byte. In .NET, it's 1 MiByte!)
Best Answer
Process:
A process is an instance of a computer program that is being executed. It contains the program code and its current activity. Depending on the operating system (OS), a process may be made up of multiple threads of execution that execute instructions concurrently. Process-based multitasking enables you to run the Java compiler at the same time that you are using a text editor. In employing multiple processes with a single CPU,context switching between various memory context is used. Each process has a complete set of its own variables.
Thread:
A thread is a basic unit of CPU utilization, consisting of a program counter, a stack, and a set of registers. A thread of execution results from a fork of a computer program into two or more concurrently running tasks. The implementation of threads and processes differs from one operating system to another, but in most cases, a thread is contained inside a process. Multiple threads can exist within the same process and share resources such as memory, while different processes do not share these resources. Example of threads in same process is automatic spell check and automatic saving of a file while writing. Threads are basically processes that run in the same memory context. Threads may share the same data while execution. Thread Diagram i.e. single thread vs multiple threads
Task:
A task is a set of program instructions that are loaded in memory.