AI engineering glossary · Computing foundations
What is multithreading?
Multithreading: Running several threads inside a single process so that tasks appear to proceed at once. It is well suited to programs that spend time waiting on input or output, and it needs synchronisation when threads touch shared data.
Multithreading: an example
A downloader that fetches 20 files concurrently using 20 threads finishes much faster than fetching them one by one.
Related terms
More Computing foundations terms
- Mutex
- Nameserver
- Network address translation
- Network protocol
- NVMe
- Octal
- Open-source software
- Operating system
Where you learn it
Multithreading is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.