Context Switch
Everything on SkillVeris tagged Context Switch — collected across the glossary, study notes, blog, and cheat sheets.
10 resources across 1 library
Interview Questions(10)
What is a Context Switch?
A context switch is the process of saving the CPU state of a currently running task and loading the saved state of another task, so a single CPU core can appea…
What is Shortest-Remaining-Time-First (SRTF) Scheduling?
Shortest-Remaining-Time-First (SRTF) is the preemptive version of Shortest-Job-First: whenever a new process arrives, the scheduler compares its burst time to…
What is a Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB)?
A Translation Lookaside Buffer, or TLB, is a small, fast hardware cache inside the CPU that stores recent virtual-to-physical address translations, so the MMU…
What is a Process Control Block (PCB)?
A Process Control Block (PCB) is the kernel data structure that stores everything the OS needs to know about a process — its state, register values, memory map…
What Causes Context Switch Overhead and How Is It Reduced?
Context switch overhead comes from the direct cost of saving and restoring CPU state plus the indirect cost of losing cache, TLB, and pipeline warmth, and it i…
Waiting Time vs Response Time in Scheduling
Waiting time is the total time a process spends sitting in the ready queue without running, while response time is the time from when a process arrives until i…
What is Throughput in Operating Systems?
Throughput in an operating system is the number of processes completed per unit of time, and it measures overall system productivity rather than how any single…
Cooperative vs Preemptive Multitasking
Cooperative multitasking relies on each running task voluntarily yielding the CPU back to the scheduler, while preemptive multitasking lets the OS forcibly int…
What is Dispatcher Latency?
Dispatcher latency is the time the OS dispatcher takes to stop one process and start another once the scheduler has decided which task should run next — it cov…
Context Switch vs Mode Switch: What Is the Difference?
A mode switch is the CPU transitioning between user mode and kernel mode privilege levels while staying within the same process, whereas a context switch is th…