Dynamically partitioning processing across a plurality of heterogeneous processors
First Claim
1. An information handling system comprising:
- a plurality of heterogeneous processors;
a common memory shared by the plurality of heterogeneous processors;
a first processor selected from the plurality of processors that sends a request to a second processor, the second processor also being selected from the plurality of processors, wherein the first processor corresponds to a first instruction set and the second processor corresponds to a second instruction set;
a local memory corresponding to the second processor;
a Direct Memory Access (DMA) controller associated with the second processor, the DMA controller transferring data between the common memory and the second processor'"'"'s local memory; and
a loading tool to load software code to execute on one of the processors, the loading tool including software effective to;
analyze a source program for one or more program characteristics, the program characteristics selected from the group consisting of data locality, computational intensity, and data parallelism;
compile the source program into two object files, a first object file corresponding to a first instruction set and a second object file corresponding to a second instruction set;
store the program characteristics in each of the object files;
receive a request to execute a software task corresponding to the source program;
select one of the processors to execute the software task, by comparing one or more characteristics of the software task with the program characteristics stored in the first object file and the second object file;
in response to selecting the first processor;
load the first object file into the common memory; and
execute the loaded first object file by the first processor; and
in response to selecting the second processor;
load the second object file into the common memory; and
execute the loaded second object file by the second processor.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A program is into at least two object files: one object file for each of the supported processor environments. During compilation, code characteristics, such as data locality, computational intensity, and data parallelism, are analyzed and recorded in the object file. During run time, the code characteristics are combined with runtime considerations, such as the current load on the processors and the size of the data being processed, to arrive at an overall value. The overall value is then used to determine which of the processors will be assigned the task. The values are assigned based on the characteristics of the various processors. For example, if one processor is better at handling intensive computations against large streams of data, programs that are highly computationally intensive and process large quantities of data are weighted in favor of that processor. The corresponding object is then loaded and executed on the assigned processor.
-
Citations
14 Claims
-
1. An information handling system comprising:
-
a plurality of heterogeneous processors; a common memory shared by the plurality of heterogeneous processors; a first processor selected from the plurality of processors that sends a request to a second processor, the second processor also being selected from the plurality of processors, wherein the first processor corresponds to a first instruction set and the second processor corresponds to a second instruction set; a local memory corresponding to the second processor; a Direct Memory Access (DMA) controller associated with the second processor, the DMA controller transferring data between the common memory and the second processor'"'"'s local memory; and a loading tool to load software code to execute on one of the processors, the loading tool including software effective to; analyze a source program for one or more program characteristics, the program characteristics selected from the group consisting of data locality, computational intensity, and data parallelism; compile the source program into two object files, a first object file corresponding to a first instruction set and a second object file corresponding to a second instruction set; store the program characteristics in each of the object files; receive a request to execute a software task corresponding to the source program; select one of the processors to execute the software task, by comparing one or more characteristics of the software task with the program characteristics stored in the first object file and the second object file; in response to selecting the first processor; load the first object file into the common memory; and execute the loaded first object file by the first processor; and in response to selecting the second processor; load the second object file into the common memory; and execute the loaded second object file by the second processor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A computer program product stored in a computer operable media to load objects in a heterogeneous multiprocessor computer system, said computer program product comprising instructions that, when executed by an information handling system, cause the information handling system to perform steps comprising:
-
analyzing a source program for one or more program characteristics, the program characteristics selected from the group consisting of data locality, computational intensity, and data parallelism; in response to the analyzing, compiling the source program into two object files, a first object file corresponding to a first instruction set and a second object file corresponding to a second instruction set; in response to the compiling, storing the program characteristics in each of the object files; receiving a request to execute a software task corresponding to the source program; selecting a processor to execute a software task, from a plurality of dislike processors, wherein a first processor corresponds to the first instruction set and a second processor corresponds to the second instruction set, the selecting comprising comparing one or more characteristics of the software task with the program characteristics stored in the first object file and the second object file; in response to selecting the first processor; loading the first object file into a shared memory, wherein the shared memory is shared by the plurality of dislike processors; and executing the loaded first object file by the identified processor; and in response to selecting the second processor; loading the second object file into the shared memory; and executing the loaded second object file by the second processor. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
Specification