Method for Executing One or More Programs on a Multi-Core Processor and Many-Core Processor

• US 20100180101A1
• Filed: 01/11/2010
• Published: 07/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Universitã¤T Augsburg
• Original Assignee: Universitã¤T Augsburg
• Inventors: Trumler, Wolfgang, Uhrig, Sascha
• Application Number:
  US12/685,416
• Publication Number:
  US 20100180101A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 712/30
• 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: G06F 9/5033 considering data affinity

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for executing computer usable program code or a program made up of program parts on a multi-core processor (1) with a multiplicity of execution units (21, 22, 23, 24), each of which comprises a local memory (201) and at least one processing unit (202) communicatively linked to the local memory, wherein each of the execution units (21, 22, 23, 24) is connected to a communications network (30) for data exchange. One or more program parts are stored in at least some of the local memories (201) of the majority of execution units (21, 22, 23, 24). Execution of a program part is performed by the processing unit (202) of the particular execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) that has the program part stored in its local memory (201).

Claims

1. A method for executing a program made up of program parts on a multi-core processor (1) with a multiplicity of execution units (21, 22, 23, 24), each of which comprises a local memory and at least one processing unit communicatively linked to the local memory (201), wherein each of the execution units is connected to a communications network for data exchange, wherein:

one or more program parts of the program are stored into at least some of the local memories of the multiplicity of execution units (21, 22, 23, 24); and

the execution of a respective program part of the program is performed by the processing unit of the respective execution unit, which has the program part stored in its local memory.

2. The method of claim 1 in which an execution context unit (210) of one of the execution units (21, 22, 23, 24) reads out at least a part of an execution context, particularly a register set including an instruction counter and function parameters, of the program part executed on the one execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) and transfers it to another of the execution units (21, 22, 23, 24) for execution, when the program part stored on the other execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) is needed to execute the program part.

3. The method according to claim 1 in which the program is produced from an object-oriented programming language, wherein objects and the program'"'"'s program code belonging to a class of objects are stored on at least one of the execution units (21, 22, 23, 24) in their local memories (201).

4. The method according to claim 1 in which the program parts at the program'"'"'s run time are stored in a respective local memory (201) of the multiplicity of execution units (21, 22, 23, 24).

5. The method according to claim 1 in which a program part to be stored in the local memory (201) of a first execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) is stored in the local memory (201) of a second, preferably physically adjacent, execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24), if the local memory (201) of the first execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) is full.

6. The method according to claim 5 in which a reference to the program part in the second execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) may optionally be made in the local memory (201) of the first execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24).

7. The method according to claim 5 in which older program parts in terms of time are removed to a memory particularly provided outside the multi-core processor (1) if the local memories (201) of the execution units (21, 22, 23, 24) no longer allow storage of new programs.

8. The method according to claim 7 in which it is checked whether a program part can be moved from the local memory (201) of a first execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) into the local memory (201) of a second execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24), before the program part is moved into the memory provided outside the multi-core processor.

9. The method according to claim 7 wherein the memory particularly provided outside the multi-core processor (1) is a cache memory.

10. The method according to claim 1 in which a program part is moved from the local memory (201) of a first execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) into the local memory (201) of a second one executing the program or into the local memory (201) of a third execution unit (21, 22, 2324), which is physically close to the second execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24).

11. The method according to claim 1 in which production of a new execution thread takes place on the execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) used during run time or a different execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) to this one.

12. The method according to claim 11 in which during execution of several execution threads on an execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24), a first process control program is provided, particularly in the execution context unit (210) of this execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24), in order to allocate the available processing unit (202) time between the execution threads.

13. The method according to claim 1 in which a second scheduler is provided in a respective execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24), particularly in the execution context unit (210) of the execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24), to manage a multiplicity of execution requests for one and the same program part in the execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) concerned.

14. The method according to claim 1 in which a look-up table is provided in a respective execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24), particularly in the execution context unit (210) of the execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24).

15. The method according to claim 1 in which a global indirection table is provided in a main memory located outside the multi-core processor (1) and linked communicatively to said multi-core processor (1), which maps virtual addresses of the program parts on the physical addresses of the respective local memories (201) of the execution units (21, 22, 23, 24).

16. The method according to claim 15 in which part of the information to be stored in the indirection table is held in the local memories (201) of the respective execution units (21, 22, 23, 24).

17. The method according to claim 1 in which a pointer routing process is used to locate a program part, in which an execution request relating to a program part being searched for is forwarded from one execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) to another execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24), if the program part being searched for is not stored in the forwarding execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) and the forwarding execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) knows the other execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) with the program part being searched for.

18. A computer program product comprising computer usable medium having computer usable program code for executing the process described according to claim 1, when the computer usable program code runs on a computer with a multi-core processor.

19. A multi-core processor (1) with multiple execution units (21, 22, 23, 24), each of said execution units comprises a local memory (201) for storing one or more program parts of the program and at least one processing unit (202) communicatively linked to the local memory, wherein each of the execution units (21, 22, 23, 24) is connected to a communications network (30) for data exchange and the multi-core processor (1) is controlled in such a way that a program part of the program is executed by the processing unit of the execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24), which has the program part stored in its local memory (201).

20. The multi-core processor according to claim 19 in which an execution context unit (210) of one of the execution units (21, 22, 23, 24) is designed to read out at least part of an execution context, particularly a register set including an instruction counter and a function parameter, of the program part executed on the one execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) and to transfer it to another of the execution units (21, 22, 23, 24), if the program part stored on the other execution unit (21, 22, 23, 24) is needed in order to execute this program part.