What is Context Switch?

Switching the CPU to another process requires saving the state of the old process and loading the saved state for the new process. This task is known as a context switch.Context-switch time is pure overhead, because the system does no useful work while switching. Its speed varies from machine to machine, depending on the memory speed, the number of registers which must be copied, the existed of special instructions(such as a single instruction to load or store all registers).
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Sandhya.Kishan

  • Apr 23rd, 2012
 

Context switching is a process of storing and restoring the state of the CPU So that the execution of the process can be resumed from the same point where it had been switched.
There are 3 situations where a context switching occurs namely multitasking,Interrupt handling and User and kernel mode switching.
Context switching is best suited for a multitasking operating system where multiple processes to share a single CPU.

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