Asynchronous vs synchronous execution, what does i

Question

What is the difference between asynchronous and synchronous execution?

Answer 1

In a nutshell, synchronization refers to two or more processes' start and end points, NOT their executions. In this example, Process A's endpoint is synchronized with Process B's start point:

SYNCHRONOUS
   |--------A--------|
                     |--------B--------|

Asynchronous processes, on the other hand, do not have their start and endpoints synchronized:

ASYNCHRONOUS
   |--------A--------|
         |--------B--------|

Where Process A overlaps Process B, they're running concurrently or synchronously (dictionary definition), hence the confusion.

UPDATE: Charles Bretana improved his answer, so this answer is now just a simple (potentially oversimplified) mnemonic.

Answer 2

Synchronous/Asynchronous HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MULTI-THREADING.

Synchronous, or Synchronized means "connected", or "dependent" in some way. In other words, two synchronous tasks must be aware of one another, and one task must execute in some way that is dependent on the other, such as wait to start until the other task has completed.
Asynchronous means they are totally independent and neither one must consider the other in any way, either in initiation or in execution.

Synchronous (one thread):

1 thread ->   |<---A---->||<----B---------->||<------C----->|

Synchronous (multi-threaded):

thread A -> |<---A---->|   
                        \  
thread B ------------>   ->|<----B---------->|   
                                              \   
thread C ---------------------------------->   ->|<------C----->| 

Asynchronous (one thread):

         A-Start ------------------------------------------ A-End   
           | B-Start -----------------------------------------|--- B-End   
           |    |      C-Start ------------------- C-End      |      |   
           |    |       |                           |         |      |
           V    V       V                           V         V      V      
1 thread->|<-A-|<--B---|<-C-|-A-|-C-|--A--|-B-|--C-->|---A---->|--B-->| 

Asynchronous (multi-Threaded):

 thread A ->     |<---A---->|
 thread B ----->     |<----B---------->| 
 thread C --------->     |<------C--------->|

• Start and end points of tasks A, B, C represented by <, > characters.
• CPU time slices represented by vertical bars |

Technically, the concept of synchronous/asynchronous really does not have anything to do with threads. Although, in general, it is unusual to find asynchronous tasks running on the same thread, it is possible, (see below for examples) and it is common to find two or more tasks executing synchronously on separate threads... No, the concept of synchronous/asynchronous has to do solely with whether or not a second or subsequent task can be initiated before the other (first) task has completed, or whether it must wait. That is all. What thread (or threads), or processes, or CPUs, or indeed, what hardware, the task[s] are executed on is not relevant. Indeed, to make this point I have edited the graphics to show this.

ASYNCHRONOUS EXAMPLE. In solving many engineering problems, the software is designed to split up the overall problem into multiple individual tasks, and then execute them asynchronously. Inverting a matrix, or a finite element analysis problem, are good examples. In computing, sorting a list is an example. The quick sort routine, for example, splits the list into two lists, and sorts each of them by calling itself recursively. In both of the above examples, the two tasks can (and often were) executed asynchronously. They do not need to be on separate threads. Even a machine with one CPU, and only one thread of execution can be coded to initiate processing of a second task before a first one has completed. The only criterion is that the results of one task are not necessary as inputs to the other task. As long as the start and end times of the tasks overlap, (possible only if the output of neither is needed as inputs to the other), they are being executed asynchronously, no matter how many threads are in use.

SYNCHRONOUS EXAMPLE. Any process consisting of multiple tasks where the tasks must be executed in sequence, but one must be executed on another machine (Fetch and/or update data, get a stock quote from a financial service, etc.). If it's on a separate machine it is on a separate thread, whether synchronous or asynchronous.

Answer 3

In simpler terms:

SYNCHRONOUS

You are in a queue to get a movie ticket. You cannot get one until everybody in front of you gets one, and the same applies to the people queued behind you.

ASYNCHRONOUS

You are in a restaurant with many other people. You order your food. Other people can also order their food, they don't have to wait for your food to be cooked and served to you before they can order. In the kitchen restaurant workers are continuously cooking, serving, and taking orders. People will get their food served as soon as it is cooked.

Answer 4

I think a good way to think of it is a classic running Relay Race

Synchronous: Processes like members of the same team, they won't execute until they receive baton (end of the execution of previous process/runner) and yet they are all acting in sync with each other.

Asynchronous: Where processes like members of different teams on the same relay race track, they will run and stop, async with each other, but within same race (overall program execution).

Does it make sense?

Answer 5

Simply said asynchronous execution is doing stuff in the background.

For example if you want to download a file from the internet you might use a synchronous function to do that but it will block your thread until the file finished downloading. This can make your application unresponsive to any user input.

Instead you could download the file in the background using asynchronous method. In this case the download function returns immediately and program execution continues normally. All the download operations are done in the background and your program will be notified when it's finished.

Answer 6

Synchronous means that the caller waits for the response or completion, asynchronous that the caller continues and a response comes later (if applicable).

As an example:

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Before call");
        doSomething();
        Console.WriteLine("After call");
    }

    private static void doSomething()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("In call");
    }

This will always ouput:

Before call
In call
After call

But if we were to make doSomething asynchronous (multiple ways to do it), then the output could become:

Before call
After call
In call

Because the method making the asynchronous call would immediately continue with the next line of code. I say "could", because order of execution can't be guaranteed with asynch operations. It could also execute as the original, depending on thread timings, etc.