Kernel Threads
Kernel threads are handled entirely by the kernel. They need not be associated with a process; a kernel can create them whenever it needs to perform a particular task. Kernel threads cannot execute in user mode. LWPs (in systems where they are a separate layer) bind to kernel threads and provide a user-level context. This includes a link to the shared resources of the process to which the LWP belongs. When an LWP is suspended, it needs to store its user-level registers until it resumes, and the underlying kernel thread must also store its own kernel-level registers.
Read more about this topic: Light-weight Process
Famous quotes containing the words kernel and/or threads:
“After night’s thunder far away had rolled
The fiery day had a kernel sweet of cold”
—Edward Thomas (1878–1917)
“How have I been able to live so long outside Nature without identifying myself with it? Everything lives, moves, everything corresponds; the magnetic rays, emanating either from myself or from others, cross the limitless chain of created things unimpeded; it is a transparent network that covers the world, and its slender threads communicate themselves by degrees to the planets and stars. Captive now upon earth, I commune with the chorus of the stars who share in my joys and sorrows.”
—Gérard De Nerval (1808–1855)