Patent US 5,355,488

A method by which a task once set-up by the API is retained in an idle status after the task is complete. Set-up tasks are maintained in a pool. A task manager, in response to an application work request, initially searches the pool for an idle task (i.e., idle thread or process) corresponding to the task request. If there is a corresponding idle task in the pool, control passes to the application code for execution. If there is no idle task available, the Task Manager functions as an API and sets-up the task as in the prior art except that, when completed, it is not terminated but rather its identifier is placed in the pool.