Process
An instance of a running program, with its own memory space and system resources allocated by the OS.
Definition
A process is an instance of a computer program that is being executed by one or many threads. Each process has its own isolated memory address space, file handles, security credentials, and system resources managed by the operating system. Processes are created by other processes (parent-child hierarchy) and can communicate through inter-process communication (IPC) mechanisms such as pipes, sockets, and shared memory. The OS kernel schedules processes on available CPU cores using scheduling algorithms.
Example
“Opening Microsoft Word creates a new process with its own allocated memory; opening a second Word document may create another process or a new thread within the same process.”
Synonyms
- running program
- application instance
- OS process
- task
Antonyms / Opposites
- thread
- terminated process
Images
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Related Terms
- thread
- kernel
- memory-management
- ipc