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In computer science, an instance is an occurrence of a software element that is based on a type definition. When created, an occurrence is said to have been instantiated, and both the creation process and the result of creation are called instantiation.
Examples
editClass instance
editA class instance is an object-oriented programming (OOP) object created from a class. Each instance of a class shares a data layout but has its own memory allocation.
Computer instance
editA computer instance is an occurrence of a virtual machine which typically includes storage, a virtual CPU.
Polygonal model
editA computer graphics polygonal model can be instantiated in order to be drawn several times in different locations in a scene which can improve the performance of rendering since a portion of the work needed to display each instance is reused.
Program instance
editIn a POSIX-oriented operating system, program instance refers to an executing process. It is instantiated for a program via system calls such as fork() and exec(). Each executing process is an instance of a program which it has been instantiated from.[1]
References
edit- ^ Bach, Maurice J. (1986). The Design of the UNIX Operating System. Prentice Hall. pp. 10, 24. ISBN 0-13-201799-7. Archived from the original on 2010-03-15.