1. <operating system, software> The sequence of states of an
executing program. A process consists of the program code
(which may be shared with other processes which are executing
the same program), private data, and the state of the
processor, particularly the values in its registers. It
may have other associated resources such as a process
identifier, open files, CPU time limits, shared memory,
child processes, and signal handlers.
One process may, on some platforms, consist of many
threads. A multitasking operating system can run
multiple processes concurrently or in parallel, and allows
a process to spawn "child" processes.
(2001-06-16)
2. <business> The sequence of activities, people, and systems
involved in carrying out some business or achieving some
desired result. E.g. software development process, project
management process, configuration management process.
(2001-06-16)
Nearby terms:
procedural language « Procedural Language/SQL « procedure « process » Process and Experiment Automation Real-Time Language » Process Design Language 2 » process ID
