kernel

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Processes Threads and the KernelHow Computers Work

More terms from this board

• context switchsave one thread's state, load another's (~µs + cache cost)
• fork/execclone a process / replace its program
• init/systemdPID 1, root of the process tree
• MMU + page tablethe translator
• namespaces + cgroupsthe kernel features that make a container
• page (~4KB) / frameunit of virtual / physical memory
• page faulttouched a not-in-RAM page
• PIDprocess id
• preemptioninterrupting a thread on its time slice
• processisolated running program (own address space)
• schedulerpicks who runs
• swappaging RAM to disk
• syscalluser code trapping into the kernel for a privileged op
• threadan execution unit sharing a process's memory
• user vs kernel mode (ring 3/0)restricted vs full hardware access