When CPU switches to another process, the system must save the
state of the old process and load the saved state for the new process
via a context switch
Context of a process represented in the PCB
Context-switch time is overhead; the system does no useful work
while switching
The more complex the OS and the PCB ➔ the longer the context
switch
Time dependent on hardware support
Some hardware provides multiple sets of registers per CPU ➔
multiple contexts loaded at once