Meaning – The term multitasking, refers to a mode of operation that provides for concurrent performance, or interleaved execution of two or more tasks.
New tasks can interrupt already started ones before they finish, instead of waiting for them to end. As a result, a computer executes segments of multiple tasks in an interleaved manner, while the tasks share common processing resources such as central processing units (CPUs) and main memory.
Multitasking is a common feature of computer operating systems. It allows more efficient use of the computer hardware; where a program is waiting for some external event such as user input or an input/output transfer with a peripheral to complete, the central processor can still be used with another program.
Example of usage – “Often multitasking operating systems include measures to change the priority of individual tasks so that important jobs receive more processor time than those considered less significant.”
