| 20 | A thread, in xilkernel, is simply a function that is not necessarily processed linearly. If you are a beginner programmer, you may be used to the idea of a linear program, where at any given time, you are sitting in one function call. This is not necessarily the case with threads. Threads are coded like functions, but can work "in parallel" -- not truely in parallel, however, unless you have multiple processors. In a single processor, parts of the function/thread are processed in a scheduled fashion, very quickly -- giving the the ''impression'' that they are being processed in parallel in realtime. Aside from being simple functions, threads can do a lot of cool things, like interact with each other and pass data back and forth. By reading the rest of this document and checking out the [http://warp.rice.edu/trac/wiki/xilkernel_ref reference designs], you should be able to pick up (relatively easily), how to do all of these things. |