What is the difference between task and process

A thread is the smallest unit of execution that lies within the process. A process can have multiple threads running. An execution of thread results in a task.

Hence, in a multithreading environment, multithreading takes place. A program can have any number of processes. I'm studying a course on real-time systems and there are some definitions that I don't know. The difference appears to be that "process" is a well-defined term with a specific meaning that is universally understood, whereas "task" is ambiguous and means different things to different people. Microsoft Windows certainly conflates the two terms—the Task Manager is used to administer processes.

Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Difference between task and process Ask Question. PC's have only one mouse, keyboard, etcetera, so they are not multi-tasking systems to me. I consider a mainframe to be a multi-tasking system. Threading is a technique for switching processing context. Allows a physical processor to drive multiple processes.

No direct relationship to tasks. It isn't specified what operating system construct should be used to implement it, but it allows shared-memory between tasks, so a thread would be a more natural implementation. You could also think of task as a running piece of code. Then a part of a thread or a part of a process could be a task. Process Process is a naturally occurring or designed sequence of operations or events, possibly taking up time, space, expertise or other resource, which produces some outcome.

A process may be identified by the changes it creates in the properties of one or more objects under its influence. Thread Threads are similar to processes, in that both represent a single sequence of instructions executed in parallel with other sequences, either by time slicing or multiprocessing.

Threads are a way for a program to split itself into two or more simultaneously running tasks. A task and a process are usually similar when used in terms of OS : they are both a set of instructions loaded into memory to be executed by the processor.

As all modern processors uses Time sharing and context switching for process execution, the difference lies in the number of processors , i. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Collectives on Stack Overflow.

Learn more. Task vs. Strategies are the "WHAT" in your mission. It is the definition of what we will do to accomplish your goal. In this scenario, our strategy will be to hire 20 new salespeople to work toward accomplishing our mission of being the number one tech company in North Texas.

Our process is the "HOW" we will do it, and how precisely the defined strategy will be supported. To accomplish our strategy, our process will involve contacting a local talent acquisition company to find the best salespeople in our area. Once we have hired our new salesmen, we will offer training to educate them on our services and company policies. Processes define precisely how we are going to support the defined strategy. Task are everywhere and are a part of everyday life!

They are the "STEPS" that need to be executed for the process to operate as designed, and how we move the process forward. In our scenario, our task would be as follows:.