Patent · US Expired

Asymmetric heterogeneous multi-threaded operating system

US7516456B2 · kind B2 · utility

47Cited by
84References
8Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 25, 2003
Grant dateApr 7, 2009
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 18, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F9/4881
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method for an asymmetric heterogeneous multi-threaded operating system is presented. A processing unit (PU) provides a trusted mode environment in which an operating system executes. A heterogeneous processor environment includes a synergistic processing unit (SPU) that does not provide trusted mode capabilities. The PU operating system uses two separate and distinct schedulers which are a PU scheduler and an SPU scheduler to schedule tasks on a PU and an SPU, respectively. In one embodiment, the heterogeneous processor environment includes a plurality of SPUs. In this embodiment, the SPU scheduler may use a single SPU run queue to schedule tasks for the plurality of SPUs or, the SPU scheduler may use a plurality of run queues to schedule SPU tasks whereby each of the run queues correspond to a particular SPU.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.