Balancing computational load across a plurality of processors

• US 7,444,632 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2003
• Issued: 10/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Minor, Barry L, Nutter, Mark Richard, To, VanDung Dang
• Primary Examiner(s): An; Meng-Ai
• Assistant Examiner(s): Truong; Camquy
• Application Number:
  US10/670,826
• Publication Number:
  US 20050081182A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,860 Days
• Field of Search: 718/105, 718/100, 717/136, 717/145, 717/166
• US Class Current: 718/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5044 considering hardware capabilities

Abstract

Source code subtasks are compiled into byte code subtasks whereby the byte code subtasks are translated into processor-specific object code subtasks at runtime. The processor-type selection is based upon one of three approaches which are 1) a brute force approach, 2) higher-level approach, or 3) processor availability approach. Each object code subtask is loaded in a corresponding processor type for execution. In one embodiment, a compiler stores a pointer in a byte code file that references the location of a byte code subtask. In this embodiment, the byte code subtask is stored in a shared library and, at runtime, a runtime loader uses the pointer to identify the location of the byte code subtask in order to translate the byte code subtask.

Claims

1. A method for load balancing code execution, said method comprising:

compiling a first source code subtask and a second source code subtask, the compiling resulting in a first byte code subtask and a second byte code subtask;

determining whether to store a pointer in a byte code file, the pointer including a stored location that corresponds to the second byte code subtask;

storing the pointer in the byte code file in response to the determination;

storing the second byte code subtask at the stored location in response to the determination;

translating the first byte code subtask to a first object code subtask;

executing the first object code subtask using one of a plurality of heterogeneous processor types;

during the execution of the first object code subtask, the method further comprises;

retrieving the pointer and analyzing the stored location;

in response to analyzing the stored location, retrieving the second byte code subtask using a runtime loader;

in response to retrieving the second byte code subtask, using the runtime loader to identify a processor type from the plurality of heterogeneous processor types in which to execute the second byte code subtask, wherein the identifying includes retrieving a loading factor for each of the plurality of heterogeneous processor types and determining an availability of each of the plurality of heterogeneous processor types using the loading factors;

in response to identifying the processor type, using the runtime loader to translate the second byte code subtask to a second object code subtask; and

loading the second object code subtask into a processor that corresponds to the identified processor type.