Method and apparatus for migrating task in multi-processor system

• US 20090187912A1
• Filed: 06/30/2008
• Published: 07/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Seung-won
• Granted Patent: US 8,171,267 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4856 resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method and apparatus for migrating a task in a multi-processor system. The method includes examining whether a second process has been allocated to a second processor, the second process having a same instruction to execute as a first process and having different data to process in response to the instruction from the first process, the instruction being to execute the task; selecting a method of migrating the first process or a method of migrating a thread included in the first process based on the examining and migrating the task from a first processor to the second processor using the selected method. Therefore, cost and power required for task migration can be minimized. Consequently, power consumption can be maintained in a low-power environment, such as an embedded system, which, in turn, optimizes the performance of the multi-processor system and prevents physical damage to the circuit of the multi-processor system.

Claims

1. A method of migrating a task, which is to be processed by a first processor from among a plurality of processors included in a multi-processor system, from the first processor to a second processor, the method comprising:

examining whether a second process has been allocated to the second processor, the second process having a same instruction to execute as a first process and having different data to process in response to the instruction from the first process, the instruction being to execute the task;

selecting a method of migrating the first process or a method of migrating a thread included in the first process based on the examining; and

migrating the task from the first processor to the second processor using the selected method.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting of the method of migrating the first process or the method of migrating the thread included in the first process comprises:

selecting the method of migrating the thread included in the first process if the second process has been allocated to the second processor; and

selecting the method of migrating the first process if the second process has not been allocated to the second processor.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating clone process information indicating whether one process has a same instruction to execute as one of the other previously generated processes, and has different data to process in response to the instruction from the other previously generated processes, wherein the examining of whether the second process has been allocated to the second processor comprises:

searching processes of the multi-processor system for the second process, which has the same instruction to execute as the first process and has different data to process in response to the instruction from the first process, based on generated clone process information; and

determining whether the second process, found in the searching, has been allocated to the second processor.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein, the generating of the clone process information comprises extracting information regarding an allocation of each process to a processor from parallelization information which is generated at compile time.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein, the generating of the clone process information comprises tracking generation information of each process in real time.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising storing the clone process information of each process to be migrated, and information regarding threads included in each process to be migrated.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting between the first processor and the second processor, the second processor generating less loads or consuming less power than the first processor, based on the load or power consumption of each of the processors.

8. A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for executing the method of claim 1 in a computer is recorded.

9. An apparatus for migrating a task, which is to be processed by a first processor from among a plurality of processors included in a multi-processor system, from the first processor to a second processor, the apparatus comprising:

an examining unit examining whether a second process has been allocated to the second processor, the second process having a same instruction to execute as a first process and having different data to process in response to the instruction from the first process, the instruction being to execute the task;

a migration method selecting unit selecting a method of migrating the first process or a method of migrating a thread included in the first process based on the examination result; and

a task migrating unit migrating the task from the first processor to the second processor using the selected method.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the migration method selecting unit selects the method of migrating the thread included in the first process if the second process has been allocated to the second processor and selects the method of migrating the first process if the second process has not been allocated to the second processor.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising a clone process information generating unit indicating whether one process has a same instruction to execute as one of the other previously generated processes, and has different data to process in response to the instruction from the other previously generated processes, wherein the examining unit searches processes of the multi-processor system for the second process, which has the same instruction to execute as the first process and has different data to process in response to the instruction from the first process, based on generated clone process information and determines whether the second process, found in the searching, has been allocated to the second processor.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the clone process information generating unit generates the clone process information by extracting information regarding an allocation of each process to a processor from parallelization information which is generated at compile time.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the clone process information generating unit generates the clone process information by tracking generation information of each process in real time.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a task migration table storing the clone process information of each process to be migrated, and information regarding threads included in each process to be migrated.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising a processor selecting unit selecting between the first processor and the second processor, the second processor generating less loads or consuming less power than the first processor, based on the load or power consumption of each of the processors.