ENERGY-AWARE COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT SCHEDULER

• US 20100287559A1
• Filed: 05/11/2009
• Published: 11/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Raytheon BBN Technlogies Corp. (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BBN Technologies (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: MERGEN, John-Francis, Edmison, Joshua N.
• Granted Patent: US 8,291,422 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4893 taking into account power or heat criteria power management in computers in general G06F1/3203; thermal management in computers in general G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method includes receiving a process request, identifying a current state of a device in which the process request is to be executed, calculating a power consumption associated with an execution of the process request, and assigning an urgency for the process request, where the urgency corresponds to a time-variant parameter to indicate a measure of necessity for the execution of the process request. The method further includes determining whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to a future time or not based on the current state, the power consumption, and the urgency, and causing the execution of the process request, or causing a delay of the execution of the process request to the future time, based on a result of the determining.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a reduced energy scheduler (RES), a process request;

identifying, by the RES, a current state of a device in which the process request is to be executed;

calculating, by the RES, a power consumption associated with an execution of the process request;

assigning, by the RES, an urgency for the process request, where the urgency corresponds to a time-variant parameter to indicate a measure of necessity for the execution of the process request;

determining, by the RES, whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to a future time or not based on the current state, the power consumption, and the urgency; and

causing, by the RES, the execution of the process request, or causing, by the RES, a delay of the execution of the process request to the future time, based on a result of the determining.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying, by the RES, one or more projected processes scheduled to execute at the future time;

calculating, by the RES, a projected power consumption associated with an execution of the one or more projected processes; and

where the determining comprises;

determining whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not based on the projected power consumption.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying, by the RES, a projected state of the device associated with the future time; and

where the determining comprises;

determining whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not based on the projected state.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

measuring, by the RES, one or more values associated with one or more environmental factors; and

where the determining comprises;

determining whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not based on the one or more environmental factors.

5. The method of claim 4, where the environmental factors include one or more of temperature, thermal mass, air pressure, humidity, or density altitude.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning, by the RES, a threshold value of urgency that represents that a process request must be executed;

comparing, by the RES, the urgency to the threshold value of urgency to determine whether the urgency exceeds the threshold value of urgency; and

where the determining comprises;

determining whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not based on the comparing.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating, by the RES, a projected urgency for the process request based on an urgency rate that provides a rate of change of the urgency through time; and

where the determining comprises;

determining whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not based on the projected urgency.

8. The method of claim 1, where the causing comprises:

sending, by the RES, the process request to a scheduler of the device when it is determined that the execution of the process request cannot be delayed to the future time; and

where the scheduler provides for the execution of the process request.

9. A device, comprising:

a memory to store instructions; and

a processor to execute the instructions in the memory to;

receive a process request;

identify a current state of the device in which the process request is to be executed or a current state of another device in which the process request is to be executed;

calculate a power consumption associated with an execution of the process request;

receive environmental information;

assign an urgency level to the process request, where the urgency level corresponds to a time-variant parameter to indicate a measure of importance for the execution of the process request;

determine whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to a future time or not based on the current state, the power consumption, environmental information, and the urgency level, and

cause the execution of the process request or delay the execution of the process request based on a result of the determine.

10. The device of claim 9, where the processor executes the instructions in the memory to:

identify each resource that is needed to execute the process request, and when determining whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not, the processor executes the instructions in the memory to;

determine whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not based on each resource identified.

11. The device of claim 9, where the processor executes the instructions in the memory to:

utilize historical state information corresponding to state information of the device during a previous time period or state information of the other device during a previous time period;

utilize historical process information corresponding to one or more processes executed or not executed during a previous time period; and

when determining whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not, the processor executes the instructions in the memory to;

determine whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not based on the historical state information and the historical process information.

12. The device of claim 9, where the processor executes the instructions in the memory to:

utilize one or more of power, thermal, or transient characteristics of the device or the other device in which the process request is to be executed; and

when determining whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not, the processor executes the instructions in the memory to;

determine whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not based on the one or more of power, thermal, or transient characteristics.

13. The device of claim 9, where the processor executes the instructions in the memory to:

calculate a projected urgency for the process request based on an urgency rate that provides a rate of change of the urgency through time; and

when determining whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not, the processor executes the instructions in the memory to;

determine whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not based on the projected urgency.

14. The device of claim 9, further comprising:

an operating system that includes a scheduler capable of executing the process request; and

where the instructions correspond to a reduced energy scheduler (RES) that operates in conjunction with the scheduler.

15. The device of claim 14, where, when receiving the process request, the processor executes the instructions in the memory to:

retrieve the process request from a shared memory source with the scheduler, or

obtain the process request based on a communication with the scheduler.

16. A computer-readable medium containing instructions executable by at least one processor, the computer-readable medium comprising:

one or more instructions for receiving a process request that will cause a process to be executed;

one or more instructions for identifying one or more resources that are needed for the execution of the process request;

one or more instructions for calculating a power consumption associated with the execution of the process request;

one or more instructions for associating an urgency with the process request, where the urgency corresponds to a time-variant parameter to indicate a measure of necessity for the execution of the process request;

one or more instructions for determining whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to a future time or not based on the one or more resources, the power consumption, and the urgency; and

one or more instructions for causing the execution of the process request or delay the execution of the process request to the future time based on a result of the determine.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising:

one or more instructions for identifying a current state of a device in which the process is to be executed, and where the one or more instructions for determining comprises;

one or more instructions for determining whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not based on the current state of the device.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising:

one or more instructions for utilizing environmental information when determining whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising:

one or more instructions for calculating a projected urgency based on an urgency rate that provides a rate of change of the urgency through time; and

where the one or more instructions for determining comprises;

one or more instructions for determining whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not based on the projected urgency.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising:

one or more instructions for utilizing historical state information and historical process request information when determining whether the execution of the process request can be delayed to the future time or not.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, where the one or more instructions for determining comprise:

one or more instructions for determining whether the execution of the process request can be executed in a degraded mode, and where the one or more instructions for causing comprise;

one or more instructions for causing the execution of the process request in the degraded mode when it is determined that the process request can be executed in the degraded mode.