Fiber (computer Science) - Operating System Support

Operating System Support

Less support from the operating system is needed for fibers than for threads. They can be implemented in modern Unix systems using the library functions getcontext, setcontext and swapcontext in ucontext.h, as in GNU Portable Threads.

On Microsoft Windows, fibers are created using the ConvertThreadToFiber and CreateFiber calls; a fiber that is currently suspended may be resumed in any thread. Fiber-local storage, analogous to thread-local storage, may be used to create unique copies of variables.

Symbian OS uses a similar concept to fibers in its Active Scheduler. An active object contains one fiber to be executed by the Active Scheduler when one of several outstanding asynchronous calls complete. Several Active objects can be waiting to execute (based on priority) and each one must restrict its own execution time.

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