Method for urgency-based preemption of a process
US8963933B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 23, 2012 |
| Grant date | Feb 24, 2015 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 31, 2032 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F9/4881
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The desire to use an Accelerated Processing Device (APD) for general computation has increased due to the APD's exemplary performance characteristics. However, current systems incur high overhead when dispatching work to the APD because a process cannot be efficiently identified or preempted. The occupying of the APD by a rogue process for arbitrary amounts of time can prevent the effective utilization of the available system capacity and can reduce the processing progress of the system. Embodiments described herein can overcome this deficiency by enabling the system software to pre-empt a process executing on the APD for any reason. The APD provides an interface for initiating such a pre-emption. This interface exposes an urgency of the request which determines whether the process being preempted is allowed a grace period to complete its issued work before being forced off the hardware.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.