(8) Strategy Management Shell

	Machine:     PIM
	Environment: PIMOS 3.0
	Language:    KL1, ESP
	Source Code: 400 KB
	Documents:   Manual (Japanese)

Overview

A Dynamic Load-balancing Multi-tasking OS based on Strategy Management on a Parallel Machine.

Configuration

A new dynamic load balancing scheme for general-purpose parallel machines is proposed, and the structure of the operating system (OS) with performance management capability-Strategy Management Shell- is described. Strategy Management Shell consists of three susbsystems, each for dynamic load-balancing distributed processing, strategy management, and simple user-interface.

Function

Dynamic Load-balancing Distributed Processing:
The OS intergrates multi-tasking feature into parallel processing capability. When a processing element (PE) that has no necessary program tries to execute processes, the PE sends the processes to other PEs that have programs. With this mechanism, the OS can control load-balancing of processes over PEs through dynamic replacement of programs. Virtual machine mechanism helps to identify PEs to which programs and processes are sent.
Strategy Management:
Dynamic replacement strategies and their performance indices are stored in a database. Every job is executed under "the best strategy at the moment" with consulting the database.

In parallel the OS tries to improve strategies;the OS may run extra execution under experimental strategies and add the result to the database, if the parallel machine can afford it.

References

Youji Kohda and Munenori Maeda:
Evolution of Parallel Systems:From Batch-processing to Multi-tasking (in Japanese), IPSJ Computer System Symposium, 1991 March, pp.85-94.
Youji Kohda:
A Dynamic Load-Balancing Strategy on Parallel Machines through Remapping of Programs and Processes (in Japanese), Transactions of Information Processing Society of Japan, vol.31, no.12 (1990), pp.1792-1800.

FTP

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