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Predictable task migration for locked caches in multi-core systems

Published:11 April 2011Publication History
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Abstract

Locking cache lines in hard real-time systems is a common means of achieving predictability of cache access behavior and tightening as well as reducing worst case execution time, especially in a multitasking environment. However, cache locking poses a challenge for multi-core hard real-time systems since theoretically optimal scheduling techniques on multi-core architectures assume zero cost for task migration. Tasks with locked cache lines need to proactively migrate these lines before the next invocation of the task. Otherwise, cache locking on multi-core architectures becomes useless as predictability is compromised.

This paper proposes hardware-based push-assisted cache migration as a means to retain locks on cache lines across migrations. We extend the push-assisted migration model with several cache migration techniques to efficiently retain locked cache lines on a bus-based chip multi-processor architecture. We also provide deterministic migration delay bounds that help the scheduler decide which migration technique(s) to utilize to relocate a single or multiple tasks. This information also allows the scheduler to determine feasibility of task migrations, which is critical for the safety of any hard real-time system. Such proactive migration of locked cache lines in multi-cores is unprecedented to our knowledge.

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          • Published in

            cover image ACM SIGPLAN Notices
            ACM SIGPLAN Notices  Volume 46, Issue 5
            LCTES '10
            May 2011
            170 pages
            ISSN:0362-1340
            EISSN:1558-1160
            DOI:10.1145/2016603
            Issue’s Table of Contents
            • cover image ACM Conferences
              LCTES '11: Proceedings of the 2011 SIGPLAN/SIGBED conference on Languages, compilers and tools for embedded systems
              April 2011
              182 pages
              ISBN:9781450305556
              DOI:10.1145/1967677

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            • Published: 11 April 2011

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