Thursday, July 16, 2009

Inter-process communication

Inter-process communication (IPC) is a set of techniques for the exchange of data among multiple threads in one or more processes. Processes may be running on one or more computers connected by a network. IPC techniques are divided into methods for message passing, synchronization, shared memory, and remote procedure calls (RPC).

The method of IPC used may vary based on the bandwidth and latency of communication between the threads, and the type of data being communicated.

There are several reasons for providing an environment that allows process cooperation:
Information sharing Computation speedup Modularity Convenience IPC may also be referred to as inter-thread communication and inter-application communication.
IPC, on par with the address space concept, is the foundation for address space independence/isolation.[1]

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