What is "multithreading"

n. (context computing English) The use of multithreaded code.

In computer architecture, multithreading is the ability of a central processing unit (CPU) or a single core in a multi-core processor to execute multiple processes or threads concurrently, appropriately supported by the operating system. This approach differs from multiprocessing, as with multithreading the processes and threads have to share the resources of a single or multiple cores: the computing units, the CPU caches, and the translation lookaside buffer (TLB).

Where multiprocessing systems include multiple complete processing units, multithreading aims to increase utilization of a single core by using thread-level as well as instruction-level parallelism. As the two techniques are complementary, they are sometimes combined in systems with multiple multithreading CPUs and in CPUs with multiple multithreading cores.

Multithreading may refer to:

• Multithreading (computer architecture), in computer hardware
• Multithreading (software), in computer software