Microsoft has been granted a patent that provides the rights to multithreaded opening and saving of documents as well as all other files that can be edited.
According to the patent, multithreaded opening and saving is beneficial in scenarios where files become increasingly complex and large and would take too long to be processed in a traditional single-threaded way, especially when the selected document requires the launch of an application that is not loaded yet.
Microsoft's idea describes a three process pipeline, in which the first pipeline is leverage to load a document into an application and the second to execute the application process thread, including "tasks associated with operating on the documents". A third pipeline is employed to execute the load process thread. The structure is designed as a synchronization primitive for regulating access to a "circular queue" as the technology is configured to "pass tokens from the first pipeline as input to the tasks in the second pipeline," and the tasks in the second pipeline "are configured to pass tokens as input to the tasks in the third pipeline."
Microsoft already owns similar patents, including the right to multi-threaded processing of spreadsheets.
Wolfgang Gruener is an experienced professional in digital strategy and content, specializing in web strategy, content architecture, user experience, and applying AI in content operations within the insurtech industry. His previous roles include Director, Digital Strategy and Content Experience at American Eagle, Managing Editor at TG Daily, and contributing to publications like Tom's Guide and Tom's Hardware.
