Execute code concurrently on multicore hardware by submitting work to dispatch queues managed by the system.
SDKs
- iOS 8.0+
- macOS 10.10+
- Mac Catalyst 13.0+
- tvOS 9.0+
- watchOS 2.0+
Overview
Dispatch, also known as Grand Central Dispatch (GCD), contains language features, runtime libraries, and system enhancements that provide systemic, comprehensive improvements to the support for concurrent code execution on multicore hardware in macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS.
The BSD subsystem, Core Foundation, and Cocoa APIs have all been extended to use these enhancements to help both the system and your application to run faster, more efficiently, and with improved responsiveness. Consider how difficult it is for a single application to use multiple cores effectively, let alone to do it on different computers with different numbers of computing cores or in an environment with multiple applications competing for those cores. GCD, operating at the system level, can better accommodate the needs of all running applications, matching them to the available system resources in a balanced fashion.