Difference Between Program and Process

In this post, we will understand the difference between program and process −

Program

It is a set of instructions that has been designed to complete a certain task.
It is a passive entity.
It resides in the secondary memory of the system.
It exists in a single place and continues to exist until it has been explicitly deleted.
It is considered as a static entity.
It doesn’t have a resource requirement.
It requires memory space to store instructions.
It doesn’t have a control block.

It is an instance of a program that is being currently executed.
It is an active entity.
It is created when program is in execution and is being loaded into the main memory.
It exists for a limited amount of time.
It gets terminated once the task has been completed.
It is considered as a dynamic entity.
It has a high resource requirement.
It requires resources such as CPU, memory address, I/O during its working.
It has its own control block, which is known as Process Control Block.

Published on 16-Apr-2021 07:43:39