How each thread can have CPU registers

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Hi,

At several places I have read,

Quote:
Each thread has its own set of CPU registers and its own stack

Here, I can understand about stack, it's a data structure. But how thread can have its own CPU registers. They are fix in number and there are limitless number of threads are running in the system.

Regards

Posted 29-Apr-12 1:33am

Pranit Kothari

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OriginalGriff · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-29T01:56:00

Because they are part of what is called the execution Context. Basically, when a thread is suspended for whatever reason, the current machine state (all registers, including program counter, stack pointer and flag values) are saves as part of the Context with the Thread. The actual machine registers are then free for other Threads to use. When a Thread is resumed, the Context is restored back to where it came from, and the Thread does not even have to be made aware that it was suspended.

If this didn't occur, then the actual registers would be shared, and one task could corrupt them for another. It would also not be possible to restart a Thread on a different Core or even physical processor!