Context switch

[jason s]

The process of storing and restoring the state of a CPU is called a CONTEXT SWITCH. It is used so that multiple processes can share a single CPU resource. Context swtichs are usually computationally intensive and much of the design of operating system is to optimize the use of Context swtiches. The Context swtich is an essential feature of a multitasking operating system. It can be a thread Context switch, a process Context switch, or a task Context switch.

[BodShane]

Here, the best part is that it can be performed on a software or on a hardware.