Operating Systems/Process Management

Process

A process in operating system terminology is 'a program in execution'. Unlike a program which is resident on secondary storage, the process is an active entity. The process utilizes the resources of the system. A process is created whenever a program is executed.

Modern computer systems allow multiple processes to be loaded into memory at the same time and, through time-sharing (or multitasking), give an appearance that they are being executed at the same time even if there is just one processor.