Thread Libraries

The Operating System is an interface between the user and hardware that enables the interaction of computer hardware and software or it can act as a bridge between the user and the application. It ensures that various software programs can run efficiently and interact with hardware as needed. Some Popular Operating Systems are Linux, Unix, Microsoft Windows, and so on. Without an operating system computer is useless.

Threads in Operating Systems

A thread is a path of execution that is composed of a program counter, thread id, stack and set of registers within the process. In general, a thread is a least unit of the process that represents an independent sequence of execution within that process. It is a basic unit of CPU utilization that makes communication more effective and efficient, enables the utilization of multiprocessor architectures to a great scale and greater efficiency, and reduces the time required in context switching. With the support of multiprocessor architecture, the communication between the multiple thread is easier as they share memory resources. Sometimes thread also called a lightweight processes because they have their own stack but can access shared resources.

Threads in OS

Thread Libraries

• Thread library is a thread API (Application Programming Interface) which is a set of functions, methods and routine provided by operating system for creating, managing and coordination of the threads.
• Thread libraries may be implemented either in user space or kernel space library.
• If the thread library is implemented at the userspace then the code and information of thread library would be reside in user space, In this scenario invoking any function from thread library would be simple function call and can’t be a system call.
• But if the thread library is implemented at the kernelspace then the code and information of thread library would be reside in kernel space and supported by operating system, In this scenerio invoking any function from thread library would be system call to the kernel.
• The former API involves functions implemented solely within user space, with no kernel support. But latter involves system calls, and requires a kernel with thread library support as mentioned in last previous point. These libraries provide a tools to the programmer for efficient management, creation and fast execution of operations.

Need of Thread Library

• Thread Library allow us to perform or execute multiple task at the same time, with the help of this functionality we can utilize our CPU and hardware and also improve our performance.
• Even in andorid development their is a concept called Kotlin Coroutines which also work on same concept for performing multiple task at the same time with the help of thread library (dependency) for efficient execution of tasks.
• Thread libraries provide standard way to work with thread over various operating systems and platforms.
• When multiple threads are working together they need data of another threads to performs operations , so in thread library it provides mechanisms like semaphores, mutexes that allow to share data between threads without data stealing/loss.
• They have ability to create new thread within the applications and execute separated by thread.

Best Thread Libraries

There are lots of thread libraries available, but some of them are widely used. let’s digout some most widely used thread libraries.

Java Threads

• Thread is a primary model of program execution in java program and java language and it’s API provides a rich variety of features for the creation and the management of threads. As name signifies that it’s code written in java language.
• However in most instances the the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) is running on top of host operating system, the java thread API typically implemented using thread library available on the host system, Which signifies that on window system the java thread is implemented through Win32 API.
• It provide built-in support for multi-threading through java.lang.Thread and it also provide high level thread management.

Pthread

• It is also known as POSIX thread, it is an execution model that exists independently from a programming language as well as a parallel model.
• Pthread library can be implemented either at the userspace or kernel space. The Pthread is often implemented at the Linux, unix and solaris, and it is highly portable as its code written in pthread can typically be compiled and run on different unix without much modifications.
• Pthread program always have pthread.h header file. Windows doesn’t support pthread standard. It support C and C++ languages.
• Pthread are use to leverage the energy of multiple processors, because process is ruptured into thread and each thread use processor for perform task so here multiple thread are execute at the same time and this phenomenon create concurrent.
• Basically Concurrent or parallelism concept is created by processor in order to boost the execution of thread.

Win32 Thread

• Win32 thread is a part of Windows operating system and it is also called as Windows Thread. It is a kernel space library.
• In this thread we can also achieve parallelism and concurrency in same manner as in pthread.
• Win32 thread are created with the help of createThread() function. Window thread support Thread Local Storage (TLS) as allow each thread to have its own unique data, and these threads can easily share data as they declared globally.
• They providing native and low level support for multi-threading. It means they are tightly integrated with window OS and offer efficient creation and thread management.

Conclusion

After understanding above thread libraries we can say that there is lot of diversity exists thread libraries because each one of them has its own features, performance, safety measure, pros and cons. But these all libraries are used to create and manage threads. The choice of selecting libraries is rely on different programming tools, APIs. Hence all libraries have some common purpose like they all give efficient output by achieving parallelism and concurrency in multi-threading operations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q.1: What is thread ?

Answer:

A thread is a path of execution that is composed of a program counter, thread id, stack and set of registers within the process.

Q.2: What is Thread Libraries ?

Answer:

Thread library is a thread API (Application Programming Interface) which is a set of functions, methods and routine provided by operating system for creating, managing and coordination of the threads.

Q.3: What are best thread Libraries ?

Answer:

Some of best thread libraries are Pthread, Java Threads, Win32 Thread.

Q.4:Why we need Thread Libraries ?

Answer:

Thread Library allow us to perform or execute multiple task at the same time. with the help of this functionality we can utilize our CPU and hardware and also improve our performance.