A case for coordinated resource management in heterogeneous multicore platforms

Abstract

Recent advances in multi- and many-core architectures include increased hardware-level parallelism (i.e., core counts) and the emergence of platform-level heterogeneity. System software managing these platforms is typically comprised of multiple independent resource managers (e.g., drivers and specialized runtimes) customized for heterogeneous vs. general purpose platform elements. This independence, however, can cause performance degradation for an application that spans diverse cores and resource managers, unless managers coordinate with each other to better service application needs. This paper first presents examples that demonstrate the need for coordination among multiple resource managers on heterogeneous multicore platforms. It then presents useful coordination schemes for a platform coupling an IXP network processor with x86 cores and running web and multimedia applications. Experimental evidence of performance gains achieved through coordinated management motivates a case for standard coordination mechanisms and interfaces for future heterogeneous many-core systems. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.