On adaptability of the runtime environment for emerging multi-core programming models

The adaptability and collaboration of the multi-core runtime system is studied to address the problems that the current multi-core runtime can easily lead to intensified competition for processor resources and the system scalability is inferior. An adaptive and collaborative scheduling model, named ACSM, is presented based upon the dynamic feedback-control principle by taking resource allocation, runtime control, and task execution as a holistic system. The ACSM dynamically reallocates and manages processor resources among and within workloads in both centralized and distributed manners. The superiorities of ACSM over the current multi-core runtime system are as follows. The ACSM maintains good programmability and portability, enhances efficiency and adaptability in processor resources allocation, and eliminates the need of explicitly specifying the number of cores. The experiment results show that ACSM greatly reduces the competition of processor resources and improves both the overall system performance and the usability of the current multi-core programming models. Comparisons with the scheduling algorithm that relies only on the original multi-core runtime show that applications of ACSM reduce the run time by about 50% or even more, especially when the system load increases.