What are the “Threads” of a CPU and why do they exist?
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In simplified terms a CPU core can only do one thing at a time. A thread is essentially one such line of execution. It’s a singular task the CPU can work on. A CPU can have multiple threads going on and swap quickly between them, working on one for a bit, then working on the other for a bit.
Imagine it like someone reading a book. Most people can only read one book at a time, but if they so want they could read many books “at the same time” by reading a bit of one book, putting it down, reading a bit of the other book, going back to the first book, and so on and so forth.
In computers as a general rule every program running is it’s own thread, and sometimes multiple. Your CPU is just really quickly swapping between them one after the other to make it look like all the programs are running at the same time with no breaks to you, the human.
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