Here I have code that provides some explanations to the multithreading in .NET. Wrote it to refresh what I know on concurrency.

    1 /********************************************************
    2  *
    3  *                CODE IS MY PRESENTATION
    4  *
    5  ********************************************************/
    6 using System;
    7 using System.IO;
    8 
    9 //1. CLR threading is based on Windows threading.
   10 //2. CLR threading is going away from correspondence with Windows threading.
   11 //SO do not use native windows functions if you already writing CLR code
   12 //that is for future, of course Microsoft is not sleeping
   13 
   14 //Let’s start
   15 //This is namespace where Multithreading lives…
   16 using System.Threading;
   17 
   18 namespace TheoryConsole
   19 {
   20     class Program
   21     {
   22         static void Main(string[] args)
   23         {
   24             MultiThreadingInCLR presentation = new MultiThreadingInCLR();
   25 
   26             //presentation.CLRHasPoolOfThreads();
   27             //presentation.UsingThreadPoolForAsynchCalculations();
   28             //presentation.UsingDedicatedThread();
   29             //presentation.PeriodicalCallinOfAsynchOperations();
   30             presentation.AsynchronousProgrammingModel();
   31 
   32             Thread.Sleep(100);
   33             //Console.WriteLine(“Press any key to exit…”);
   34             //Console.ReadLine();
   35         }
   36     }
   37 
   38     public class MultiThreadingInCLR
   39     {
   40         //Many developers uses multithreading too often,
   41         //but it is not cheap.
   42 
   43         //Because
   44         //to Switch context system needs:
   45         // – go to core -> save processor registers ->
   46         // put spin-blocker -> take another thread ->
   47         // unput blocker -> load registers > run thread
   48 
   49         //Pool of Threads
   50         public void CLRHasPoolOfThreads()
   51         {
   52             //Each Process has its oun Pool wich can be used
   53             // in all AppDomains of that Process
   54             ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(DoAsynchWork, 10);
   55 
   56             //If there are no requests to Pool,
   57             //CLR will delete threads from it in about 2 minutes
   58 
   59             // Amount of threads in Pool
   60             // – Do not try to limit amount of threads in Pool
   61             // There are two types of threads: Worker and I/O
   62             int workingThreads = 0;
   63             int completionThreads = 0;
   64             //Get/Set Max/Min Threads
   65             ThreadPool.GetMaxThreads(out workingThreads, out completionThreads);
   66 
   67             //To GetAvailableThreads call it:
   68             //ThreadPool.GetAvailableThreads();
   69 
   70             for (int i = 0; i < 506; i++)
   71             {
   72                 ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(DoAsynchWork, 100);
   73             }
   74 
   75             ThreadPool.GetMaxThreads(out workingThreads, out completionThreads);
   76             workingThreads = 1000;
   77         }
   78 
   79 
   80         public void UsingThreadPoolForAsynchCalculations()
   81         {
   82             //If you do not need I/O operations use Worker type of thread
   83             //For example spell-checker in some editor need to work asynchronously
   84             //
   85             //Most commonly these three methods are called:
   86             //
   87             //static Boolean QueueUserWorkItem(WaitCallback callBack);
   88             //static Boolean
   89             //   QueueUserWorkItem(WaitCallback callBack, Object state);
   90             //static Boolean
   91             //   UnsafeQueueUserWorkItem(WaitCallback callBack, Object state);
   92 
   93             //callBack is delegate with the next signature:
   94             //delegate void WaitCallBack(Object state);
   95             WaitCallBackExample_IDoHardWork(null);
   96 
   97             //Here is how to start doing hard work asynchromously
   98             ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(WaitCallBackExample_IDoHardWork);
   99 
  100             //Use UnsafeQueueUserWorkItem if the time resource is very critical
  101             //Reason: QueueUserWorkItem is verifying
  102             // if the assemblies from Thread stack has permissions
  103             // to access file for example
  104             //SecurityException could be generated if there is no presmissions
  105         }
  106 
  107         #region Dedicated Thread
  108         public void UsingDedicatedThread()
  109         {
  110             //Commonly is used if we need to set some priority to thread
  111             // or if we need to change other properties of Thread
  112             // – we need set some properties to the thread
  113             // – we need set priority to our thread
  114             //        (ThreadPool has one priority for all threads in it)
  115             // – if we want run Thread in foreground
  116             //        (ThreadPoole runs threads in background)
  117 
  118             //please note that here we do NOT create actual thread,
  119             // because thread will be created only
  120             //when we will call our thread object
  121             Thread someNewThread = new Thread(ComputeBoundWork);
  122             //When we call Start method actuall thread is created
  123             // and process starts
  124 
  125             someNewThread.Start(1);
  126             Thread.Sleep(1000);//this imitates some work in main thread
  127 
  128             //Please note!
  129             // that after ComputeBoundWork finished its work,
  130             // actual system thread was deleted
  131 
  132             // this waits while the dedicated thread will finish all its work…
  133             someNewThread.Join();
  134 
  135             // so this is some kind of sysnch of threads..
  136         }
  137         #endregion
  138 
  139         #region Timer
  140         public void PeriodicalCallinOfAsynchOperations()
  141         {
  142             //System.Threading namespace has Timer defined
  143             //it has 4 very similar constructors
  144             //this used only TimerCallback
  145             //Timer timer1 = new Timer(ComputeBoundWork);
  146             Timer timer2 = new Timer(ComputeBoundWork, null, 0, 1000);
  147             // method will be called only once
  148             //Timer timer3 =
  149             //  new Timer(ComputeBoundWork, null, 0, Timeout.Infinite);
  150 
  151             //if you want to change timing behaviour of the timer
  152             // you could use Change() method, or Dispose() to stop…
  153             Thread.Sleep(10000);// this imitates some work here – 10 seconds
  154             timer2.Dispose();
  155 
  156             // Please note that there are 3 different Timers in FCL
  157             // – System.Threading.Timer
  158             //      is most suitable for doing asynch operations
  159             // – System.Windows.Forms.Timer
  160             //      is equivalent to WinAPI SetTimer.. events are added WM_TIMER
  161             // – System.Timers.Timer
  162             //      is some kind of wrapper of the Threading.Timer
  163         }
  164         #endregion
  165 
  166         #region Asynchronous Programming Model
  167 
  168         private IAsyncResult synchResultForFileWriting;
  169         private FileStream fs;
  170         public void AsynchronousProgrammingModel()
  171         {
  172             // Using of the asynchronous operations is the key to big programms :)
  173             // Combination of it with the ThreadPool
  174             //  is way to effectively use all processors of the system.
  175             // Examples where it is used…
  176             // – System.IO.Stream -> FileStream and NetworkStream
  177             //        derived classes has methods BeginRead(), BeginWrite()
  178             // – System.Net.Dns -> BeginGetHostAddresses(),
  179             //        BeginGetHostByName(), and so on…
  180             // – System.Net.Sockets -> BeginAccept(), BeginConnect(), …
  181             // all delegate types has BeginInvoke(), what could be used in APM
  182 
  183             //ok let we see file reading example
  184             fs = new FileStream(
  185                 “test.bin”, FileMode.OpenOrCreate,
  186                 FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None, 35000, FileOptions.Asynchronous);
  187             synchResultForFileWriting =
  188                 fs.BeginWrite(new byte[32738], 0, 32000, CallBackMethod, null);
  189             Console.WriteLine(
  190                 “This is called just after we said to write something to file.”);
  191 
  192 
  193             // There are 3 types of joining threads.. im APM
  194             // 1. Waiting for finish of work
  195             //Int32 readMeFile.EndRead(IAsyncResutl asyncResult)
  196 
  197             // 2. Regualar polling – is not effective method
  198             Stream readMeFile = new FileStream(“film.mp4”, FileMode.Open,
  199                   FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read, 1024, FileOptions.Asynchronous);
  200 
  201             byte[] fileContent = new byte[450000000];
  202             IAsyncResult ar =
  203                 readMeFile.BeginRead
  204                     (fileContent, 0, fileContent.Length, null, null);
  205 
  206             while (!ar.IsCompleted)
  207             {
  208                 Console.WriteLine(
  209                     “Reading Large Music file operation is not completed…”);
  210                 Thread.Sleep(100);
  211             }
  212 
  213             //please note that this will not stop actuall
  214             //     thread because we were asking for finish above
  215             readMeFile.EndRead(ar);
  216             Console.WriteLine(“We already finished reading large music file.”);
  217 
  218             // 3. Callback!!
  219             // is the most efficient and commonly used joining type
  220         }
  221 
  222         private void UserAlreadyWantsToReadThatFile()
  223         {
  224             fs.EndWrite(synchResultForFileWriting);
  225             //now we are sure that ansynch writing to file has finished its work!!
  226             fs.Close();
  227         }
  228 
  229 
  230         private void CallBackMethod(IAsyncResult ar)
  231         {
  232             //this method will be called when writing to file will finish its work
  233             Console.WriteLine(“We just finished writing to file…”);
  234         }
  235 
  236         #endregion
  237 
  238         public void WaitCallBackExample_IDoHardWork(object hardParameter)
  239         {
  240             //actually if you see my body you know that I do not do work
  241             // I sleep for 2 seconds :)
  242             Thread.Sleep(2000);
  243         }
  244 
  245         public void DoAsynchWork(object miliseconds)
  246         {
  247             Thread.Sleep((int)miliseconds);
  248         }
  249 
  250         public void ComputeBoundWork(object opCode)
  251         {
  252             Thread.Sleep(1000);// this imitates some work…
  253             Console.WriteLine(
  254                 string.Format(“Compuing bound work with param: {0}”, opCode));
  255         }
  256     }
  257 }