Systems and methods that manage processing resources

• US 7,689,998 B1
• Filed: 07/13/2004
• Issued: 03/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chrysanthakopoulos, Georgios
• Primary Examiner(s): An; Meng-Ai
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huaracha; Willy W
• Application Number:
  US10/889,947
• Time in Patent Office: 2,086 Days
• Field of Search: 718100-108, 718/10, 709/107
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5013 Request control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5021 Priority
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

The present invention provides a port-based technique to manage processing resources that can be utilized by an Operating System. The systems and methods consider time parallelism and pre-emption through sends, receives, and execution context, wherein scheduling of execution units occurs via (aperiodic and/or periodic) communication rather than time slicing. The systems and methods employ a resource manager that listens behind a port associated with a processor, which enables the processor to transition to a reduced power consumption state. When a request for processing resources arrives at the port, the resource manager can allocate the processing resources, wake the processor, and/or return a communication, which can include a location of allocated memory and an execution context of the processor, to a reply channel. Alternatively, the resource manager can preempt the request to mitigate processing resources consumption.

Claims

1. A system for managing processing resources of a computing entity, comprising:

a first processor that executes tasks;

a first receiving port that receives from a client an asynchronous request for processing resources associated with the first processor of the computing entity; and

a first resource manager that allocates the processing resources when the processing resources become available, preempts or places the asynchronous request in one of a plurality of queues if available processing resources are not sufficient to fulfill the request, searches the one of the plurality of queues for the asynchronous request based on queue priority levels to obtain reply information, and transmits a communication to a specified reply port associated with the client or another client, the communication including at least a context of execution that is utilized to execute a task associated with the asynchronous request, the allocated resources being accounted by requiring the client to request for the processing resources prior to accessing any of the processing resources.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the asynchronous request at least includes one or more of a request for memory, the context of execution, periodicity, an item of execution, a continuation, and the reply port.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing resources at least comprise memory and the context of execution, indicative of one or more processor, to be allocated.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the context of execution is associated with the first processor.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the request is an interrupt that preempts current execution.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of queues are associated with disparate priority levels, wherein the request is stored in a queue with a similar priority level.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the resource manager preempts the asynchronous request in order to mitigate consumption of the processing resources.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a second processor that executes tasks;

a second port associated with the second processor; and

a second resource manager that listens behind the second port.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the first processor resides in an idle state until it is allocated to execute the task.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a signal generator that is utilized to transmit communications with periodicity.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the periodicity is varied via joins that define a number of ticks that occur before a communication is transmitted.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the periodicity is varied via joins that define a number of events that occur before a communication is transmitted.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the first receiving port concurrently receives a plurality of communications and queues the communications.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is modeled utilizing at least one of pi and join calculus.

15. A computer-implemented method for managing processing resources of a computing entity in a communication based computing system, the method comprising:

employing a first processor to execute tasks;

receiving from a client an asynchronous communication requesting for processing resources associated with the first processor of the computing entity, the request being preempted or placed in one of a plurality of queues if available processing resources are not sufficient to fulfill the request; and

when the processing resources become available, performing acts including;

allocating processing resources of the computing entity to execute a task;

searching the one of the plurality of queues for the request based on queue priority levels to obtain reply information; and

providing access to the allocated processing resources for execution of the task by sending a reply communication to the client associated with the asynchronous communication, the reply communication including at least a context of execution that is utilized to execute a task associated with the request, the allocated processing resources being accounted by requiring the client to request for the processing resources prior to accessing any of the processing resources.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the asynchronous communication includes a request that at least specifies a desired memory, a context of execution, and a reply port associated with the client or another client.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the reply communication includes a location of allocated memory and a context of execution associated with a second processor.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first processor resides in a low processor cycle consumption state until allocated for the task.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising preempting access to the processing resources.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising employing a priority scheme to store communications in a plurality of storage banks based on communication priority.

21. The method of claim 15, further comprising utilizing a signal generator to send communications with periodicity by associating the signal generator and utilizing a join mechanism that couples resource consumption with a clock period.

22. The method of claim 15, further comprising utilizing a signal generator to preempt access to the processing resources.

23. The method of claim 15, wherein the acts are performed using process algebra.

24. The method of claim 15, further comprising re-writing received synchronous code to an asynchronous choice request with a continuation attached and employing the re-written code.

25. The method of claim 15, further comprising implementing a time out by counting communications.

26. The method of claim 15, further comprising utilizing a message received on a port to throttle utilization of resources to provide a scale invariant technique to control execution.

27. The method of claim 20, further comprising dynamically accumulating join statements and issuing the accumulated statements in a context of an asynchronous choice to mitigate deadlocks.

28. A method for transmitting a communication including one or more data packets to be transmitted between two or more computer components that facilitate processing resource management, comprising:

receiving from a client an asynchronous communication requesting for processing resources, the processing resources including memory and a context of execution of a processor, the request being preempted or placed in one of a plurality of queues if available processing resources are not sufficient to fulfill the request;

when the processing resources are available, performing acts including;

allocating the processing resources to perform an item of execution, the processing resources being allocated only when the asynchronous communication is completed;

searching the one of the plurality of queues for the request based on queue priority levels to obtain reply information; and

sending a reply communication to provide a location of the memory and access to the context of execution of the processor, the allocated processing resources being accounted by requiring the client to request for the processing resources prior to accessing any of the processing resources.

29. Computer executable components stored on a computer readable medium that facilitate managing processing resources in a free running computing environment, comprising:

a first component that receives an asynchronous communication from a client at a receiving port of a processor, wherein the asynchronous communication at least includes a request for a context of execution and a reply port associated with the client, the request being preempted or placed in one of a plurality of queues if the context of execution is not available;

a second component that allocates the context of execution when the context of execution becomes available; and

a third component that searches the one of the plurality of queues for the request based on queue priority levels to obtain reply information, and transmits a notification to the reply port when the context of execution is available to process an item of execution, the allocated processing resources being accounted by requiring the client to request for the processing resources prior to accessing any of the processing resources.

30. A system that facilitates managing processing resources, comprising:

a processor that executes tasks;

means for receiving an asynchronous request from a client for processing resources associated with the processor which is a part of a computing entity, the asynchronous request being preempted or placed in one of a plurality of queues if available processing resources are not sufficient to fulfill the request;

means for invoking allocation of the processing resources when the processing resources become available;

means for searching the one of the plurality of queues for the asynchronous request based on queue priority levels to obtain reply information, and transmitting a communication to a reply port associated with the client or another client; and

means for selectively providing access to the allocated processing resources, the allocated processing resources being accounted by requiring the client to request for the processing resources prior to accessing any of the processing resources.