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core
One independent execution unit inside a CPU that can run a thread on its own.
Modern processors contain several cores, each able to execute instructions in parallel with the others. A thread scheduled onto a core has that core's full attention until it yields or is switched out. When a thread busy-waits, it is "burning a core" — occupying a whole execution unit doing nothing productive.
See also
- context switchThe kernel saving one thread's full state and loading another's, so a single CPU can juggle many tasks.
- critical sectionA stretch of code that must be run by only one thread at a time to avoid corruption.