Multitasking on a Single Core: Concurrency vs Parallelism
Franc0Fernand0 · x · 2026-07-11
This article explores how operating systems handle multitasking on a single CPU core, clarifying the often-confused concepts of concurrency and parallelism.
- Concurrency vs Parallelism: Parallelism means tasks run simultaneously on different cores; concurrency means multiple tasks progress within the same time frame, even if only one executes at any given moment.
- Task Types: CPU-bound tasks can be accelerated with multiple cores, while I/O-bound tasks are primarily limited by wait times, meaning adding more cores won't help.
- Underlying Mechanics: The system relies on preemptive multitasking, allocating tiny time slices to each task and managing rapid switching between them via context switches and schedulers.
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