Combinatorics

Computer multitasking

Scheduling (production processes)

Preemption

Computer network

Mathematics

Kernel (algebra)

Operating system

Distributed computing

Human multitasking

Queue

Parallel computing

Cognitive psychology

Psychology

Economics

Operations management

Computer science

Linux kernel

This paper presents an extension of the Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS) to support cooperative multitasking with time-sharing for heterogeneous processing elements in Linux. We extend the kernel to be aware of accelerators, hold different run queues for these components and perform scheduling decisions using application provided meta information and a fairness measure. Our additional programming model allows the integration of checkpoints into applications, which permits the preemption and subsequent migration of applications between accelerators. We show that cooperative multitasking is possible on heterogeneous systems and that it increases application performance and system utilization.

Cooperative multitasking for heterogeneous accelerators in the Linux Completely Fair Scheduler