Scheduling Task Graphs on Heterogeneous Multiprocessors with Reconfigurable Hardware

Abstract

We address the problem of scheduling applications represented as directed acyclic task graphs (DAGs) onto architectures with reconfigurable processing cores. We introduce the Mutually Exclusive Processor Groups reconfiguration model, a novel reconfiguration model that captures many different modes of reconfiguration. Additionally, we propose the Heterogeneous Earliest Finish Time with Mutually Exclusive Processor Groups (HEFT-MEG) scheduling heuristic using the Mutually Exclusive Processor Groups reconfiguration model. HEFT-MEG schedules reconfigurations using a novel back-tracking algorithm to evaluate how different reconfiguration decisions affect previously scheduled tasks. HEFT-MEG's goal when choosing configurations is to choose the most efficient configuration for different application phases. In simulation, HEFT-MEG generates higher quality schedules than those generated by the hardware-software co-scheduler proposed by Mei, et al. [21] and HEFT [31] using a single configuration.