US20200285517A1 - Task switching and inter-task communications for coordination of applications executing on a multi-user parallel processing architecture - Google Patents

Abstract

Systems and methods provide an extensible, multi-stage, realtime application program processing load adaptive, manycore data processing architecture shared dynamically among instances of parallelized and pipelined application software programs, according to processing load variations of said programs and their tasks and instances, as well as contractual policies. The invented techniques provide, at the same time, both application software development productivity, through presenting for software a simple, virtual static view of the actually dynamically allocated and assigned processing hardware resources, together with high program runtime performance, through scalable pipelined and parallelized program execution with minimized overhead, as well as high resource efficiency, through adaptively optimized processing resource allocation.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
• This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/577,909 filed Sep. 20, 2019, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/399,593 filed Apr. 30, 2019 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,437,644), which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/226,502 filed Dec. 19, 2018 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,310,902), which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/145,632 filed Sep. 28, 2018 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,310,901), which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/014,674 filed Jun. 21, 2018 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,133,600), which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/933,724 filed Mar. 23, 2018 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,061,615), which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/273,731 filed Sep. 23, 2016 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,514,953), which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/183,860 filed Jun. 16, 2016 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,465,667), which is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/042,159 filed Feb. 12, 2016 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,400,694), which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/261,384 filed Apr. 24, 2014 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,262,204), which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/684,473 filed Nov. 23, 2012 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,789,065), which claims the benefit and priority of the following provisional applications:
• [1] U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/657,708 filed Jun. 8, 2012;
• [2] U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/673,725 filed Jul. 19, 2012;
• [3] U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/721,686 filed Nov. 2, 2012; and
• [4] U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/727,372 filed Nov. 16, 2012.
• U.S. application Ser. No. 16/014,674 is also a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/521,490 filed Oct. 23, 2014 (now U.S. Pat. No. 10,453,106), which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/297,455 filed Nov. 16, 2011, which claims the benefit and priority of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/556,065 filed Nov. 4, 2011.
• This application is also related to the following:
• [5] U.S. application Ser. No. 13/184,028 filed Jul. 15, 2011;
• [6] U.S. application Ser. No. 13/270,194 filed Oct. 10, 2011 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,490,111); and
• [7] U.S. application Ser. No. 13/277,739 filed Nov. 21, 2011 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,561,076).
• All above identified applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties for all purposes.
BACKGROUNDTechnical Field
• This invention pertains to the field of data processing and networking, particularly to techniques for connecting tasks of parallelized programs running on multi-stage manycore processor with each other as well as with external parties with high resource efficiency and high data processing throughput rate.
Descriptions of the Related Art
• Traditionally, advancements in computing technologies have fallen into two categories. First, in the field conventionally referred to as high performance computing, the main objective has been maximizing the processing speed of one given computationally intensive program running on a dedicated hardware comprising a large number of parallel processing elements. Second, in the field conventionally referred to as utility or cloud computing, the main objective has been to most efficiently share a given pool of computing hardware resources among a large number of user application programs. Thus, in effect, one branch of computing technology advancement effort has been seeking to effectively use a large number of parallel processors to accelerate execution of a single application program, while another branch of the effort has been seeking to efficiently share a single pool of computing capacity among a large number of user applications to improve the utilization of the computing resources.
• However, there have not been any major synergies between these two efforts; often, pursuing any one of these traditional objectives rather happens at the expense of the other. For instance, it is clear that a practice of dedicating an entire parallel processor based (super) computer per individual application causes severely sub-optimal computing resource utilization, as much of the capacity would be idling much of the time. On the other hand, seeking to improve utilization of computing systems by sharing their processing capacity among a number of user applications using conventional technologies will cause non-deterministic and compromised performance for the individual applications, along with security concerns.
• As such, the overall cost-efficiency of computing is not improving as much as any nominal improvements toward either of the two traditional objectives would imply: traditionally, single application performance maximization comes at the expense of system utilization efficiency, while overall system efficiency maximization comes at the expense of performance of by the individual application programs. There thus exists a need for a new parallel computing architecture, which, at the same time, enables increasing the speed of executing application programs, including through execution of a given application in parallel across multiple processor cores, as well as improving the utilization of the computing resources available, thereby maximizing the collective application processing throughput for a given cost budget.
• Moreover, even outside traditional high performance computing, the application program performance requirements will increasingly be exceeding the processing throughput achievable from a single central processing unit (CPU) core, e.g. due to the practical limits being reached on the CPU clock rates. This creates an emerging requirement for intra-application parallel processing (at ever finer grades) also for mainstream software programs (i.e. applications not traditionally considered high performance computing). Notably, these internally parallelized mainstream enterprise and web applications will be largely deployed on dynamically shared cloud computing infrastructure. Accordingly, the emerging form of mainstream computing calls for technology innovation supporting the execution of large number of internally parallelized applications on dynamically shared resource pools, such as manycore processors.
• Furthermore, conventional microprocessor and computer system architectures use significant portions of their computation capacity (e.g. CPU cycles or core capacity of manycore arrays) for handling input and output (IO) communications to get data transferred between a given processor system and external sources or destinations as well as between different stages of processing within the given system. For data volume intensive computation workloads and/or manycore processor hardware with high IO bandwidth needs, the portion of computation power spent on IO and data movements can be particularly high. To allow using maximized portion of the computing capacity of processors for processing the application programs and application data (rather than for system functions such as IO data movements), architectural innovations are also needed in the field of manycore processor IO subsystems. In particular, there is a need for a new manycore processor system data flow and IO architecture whose operation, while providing high IO data throughput performance, causes little or no overhead in terms of usage of the computation units of the processor.
SUMMARY
• The invented systems and methods provide an extensible, multi-stage, application program load adaptive, parallel data processing architecture shared dynamically among a set of application software programs according to processing load variations of said programs. The invented techniques enable any program task instance to exchange data with any of the task instances of its program within the multi-stage parallel data processing platform, while allowing any of said task instances to be executing at any core of their local processors, as well allowing any identified destination task instance to be not assigned for execution by any core for periods of time, and while said task instances lack knowledge of which core, if any, at said platform is assigned for executing any of said task instances at any given time.
• An aspect of the invention provides a system for information connectivity among tasks of a set of software programs hosted on a multi-stage parallel data processing platform. Such a system comprises: 1) a set of manycore processor based processing stages, each stage providing an array of processing cores, wherein each of said tasks is hosted on one of the processing stages, with tasks hosted on a given processing stage referred to as locally hosted tasks of that stage, 2) a hardware implemented data packet switching cross-connect (XC) connecting data packets from an output port of a processing stage to an input port of a given processing stage if a destination software program task of the data packet is hosted at the given processing stage, and 3) a hardware implemented receive logic subsystem, at any given one of the processing stages, connecting data packets from input ports of the given processing stage to the array of cores of that stage, so that a given data packet is connected to such a core, if any exist at a given time, among said array that is assigned at the given time to process a program instance to which the given input packet is directed to. Various embodiments of such systems further comprise features whereby: a) at a given processing stage, a hardware implemented controller i) periodically allocates the array of cores of the given stage among instances of its locally hosted tasks at least in part based on volumes of data packets connected through the XC to its locally hosted tasks and ii) accordingly inserts the identifications of the destination programs for the data packets passed from the given processing stage for switching at the XC, to provide isolation between different programs among the set; b) the system supports multiple instances of each of the locally hosted tasks at their processing stages, and packet switching through the XC to an identified instance of a given destination program task; c) said tasks are located across at least a certain subset of the processing stages so as to provide an equalized expected aggregate task processing load for each of the processing stages of said subset; and/or d) said tasks are identified with incrementing intra-program task IDs according to their descending processing load levels within a given program, wherein, among at least a subset of the processing stages, each processing stage of said subset hosts one of the tasks of each of the set programs so as to equalize sums of said task IDs of the tasks located on each of the processing stages of said subset.
• An aspect of the invention further provides a method for information connectivity among tasks of a set of software programs. Such a method comprises: 1) hosting said tasks on a set of manycore processor based processing stages, each stage providing an array of processing cores, with tasks hosted on a given processing stage referred to as locally hosted tasks of that stage, 2) at a data packet switching cross-connect (XC), connecting data packets from an output port of a processing stage to an input port of a given processing stage if a destination software program task identified for a given data packet is hosted at the given processing stage, and 3) at any given one of the processing stages, connecting data packets from input ports of the given processing stage to the array of cores of that stage, so that a given data packet is connected to such a core, if any exist at a given time, among said array that is assigned at the given time to process a program instance to which the given input packet is directed to. Various embodiments of the method comprise further steps and features as follows: a) periodically allocating, by a controller at a given one of the processing stages, the array of cores of the given stage among instances of its locally hosted tasks at least in part based on volumes of data packets connected through the XC to its locally hosted tasks, with the controller, according to said allocating, inserting the identifications of the destination programs for the data packets passed from the given processing stage for switching at the XC, to provide isolation between different programs among the set; b) the steps of allocating and connecting, both at the XC and the given one of the processing stages, are implemented by hardware logic that operates without software involvement; c) supporting multiple instances of each of the locally hosted tasks at their processing stages, and packet switching through the XC to an identified instance of a given destination task; d) said tasks are located across at least a certain subset of the processing stages so as to provide an equalized expected aggregate task processing load for each of the processing stages of said subset; and/or e) said tasks are identified with incrementing intra-program task IDs according to their descending processing load levels within a given program, wherein, among at least a subset of the processing stages, each processing stage of said subset hosts one of the tasks of each of the set programs so as to equalize sums of said task IDs of the tasks located on each of the processing stages of said subset.
• A further aspect of the invention provides hardware logic system for connecting input data to instances of a set of programs hosted on a manycore processor having an array of processing cores. Such a system comprises: 1) demultiplexing logic for connecting input data packets from a set of input data ports to destination program instance specific input port buffers based on a destination program instance identified for each given input data packet, and 2) multiplexing logic for connecting data packets from said program instance specific buffers to the array of cores based on identifications, for each given core of the array, of a program instance assigned for execution at the given core at any given time. An embodiment of the system further comprises a hardware logic controller that periodically assigns, at least in part based on volumes of input data packets at the program instance specific input port buffers, instances of the programs for execution on the array of cores, and accordingly forms, for the multiplexing logic, the identification of the program instance that is assigned for execution at each core of the array of cores.
• Yet further aspect of the invention provides a method for connecting input data to instances of a set of programs hosted on a manycore processor having an array of processing cores. Such a method comprises: 1) demultiplexing input data packets from a set of input data ports to destination program instance specific input port buffers according to a destination program instance identified for each given input data packet, and 2) multiplexing data packets from said program instance specific buffers to the array of cores according to identifications, for each given core of the array, of a program instance assigned for execution at the given core at any given time. In a particular embodiment of the method comprise a further step as follows: periodically forming the identifications of the program instances executing at the array of cores through i) allocating the array of cores among the set of programs at least in part based on volumes of input data packets at the input port buffers associated with individual programs of the set and ii) assigning, based at least in part based on said allocating, the cores of the array for executing specific instances of the programs. Moreover, in an embodiment, the above method is implemented by hardware logic that operates without software involvement.
• A yet further aspect of the invention provides a method for periodically arranging a set of executables of a given software program in an execution priority order, with an executable referring to a task, an instance, an instance of a task of the program, or equals thereof. Such a method comprises: 1) buffering input data at an array of executable specific input port buffers, wherein a buffer within said array buffers, from an input port associated with the buffer, such data that arrived that is directed to the executable associated with the buffer, 2) calculating numbers of non-empty buffers associated with each of the executables, and 3) ranking the executables in their descending execution priority order at least in part according to their descending order in terms numbers of non-empty buffers associated with each given executable. In a particular embodiment of this method, the step of ranking involves I) forming, for each given executable, a 1^stphase bit vector having as many bits as there are input ports from where the buffers receive their input data, with this number of ports denoted with X, and wherein a bit at index x of said vector indicates whether the given executable has exactly x non-empty buffers, with x being an integer between 0 and X, II) forming, from bits at equal index values of the 1^stphase bit vectors of each of the executables, a row of X 2^ndphase bit vectors, where a bit at index y of the 2^ndphase bit vector at index x of said row indicates whether an executable with ID number y within the set has exactly x non-empty buffers, wherein y is an integer from 0 to a maximum number of the executables less 1, as well as III) the following substeps: i) resetting the present priority order index to a value representing a greatest execution priority; and ii) until either all bits of each of the 2^ndphase bit vectors are scanned or an executable is associated with the lowest available execution priority, scanning the row of the 2^ndphase bit vectors for active-state bits, one 2^ndphase bit vector at a time, starting from row index X while decrementing the row index after reaching bit index 0 of any given 2^ndphase bit vector, and based upon encountering an active-state bit: i) associating the executable with ID equal to the index of the active-state bit within its 2^ndphase bit vector with the present priority order index and ii) changing the present priority order index to a next lower level of execution priority. Moreover, in an embodiment, the above method is implemented by hardware logic that operates without software involvement.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
• FIG. 1 shows, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a functional block diagram for multi-stage manycore processor system.
• FIG. 2 shows, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a functional block diagram for a cross-connect at the multi-stage manycore processor system ofFIG. 1.
• FIG. 3 shows, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a high-level functional block diagram for any of the manycore processor systems in the multi-stage processor system inFIG. 1.
• FIG. 4 shows, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a functional block diagram for the input data receive logic subsystem for the manycore processor system perFIG. 3.
• FIG. 5 shows, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a functional block diagram for the application load adaptive parallel data processing subsystem for a given manycore processing system ofFIG. 3 within the multi-stage processor system inFIG. 1.
• FIG. 6 illustrates, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a context diagram for the process of mapping (incl. selecting and placing) instances of the locally hosted application tasks to execute on the processing cores of the application load adaptive parallel data processing system perFIG. 5.
• FIG. 7 illustrates, in accordance with an aspect of the invention, a flow diagram and major steps for the process perFIG. 6.
• FIG. 8 illustrates, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a memory access architecture for the multi-core fabric of the data processing system perFIG. 5.
• FIG. 9 shows, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, at more detail level a portion of an embodiment of a logic system perFIG. 8 concerning write access from the cores of the fabric to the application instance (app-inst) specific fabric memory segments.
• FIG. 10 shows, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, at more detail level an embodiment of a portion of a logic system perFIG. 8 concerning read access by processing cores within the fabric to the app-inst specific fabric memory segments.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
• General notes about this specification (incl. text in the drawings):
• For brevity: ‘application (program)’ is occasionally written in as ‘app’, ‘instance’ as ‘inst’ and ‘application-task/instance’ as ‘app-task/inst’.
• Receive (RX) direction is toward the cores of the manycore processor of a given processing stage, and transmit (TX) direction is outward from the cores.
• The term IO refers both to the system1 (FIG. 1) external input and output ports as well as ports interconnecting the processing stages300 of the system.
• Ports, such as external or inter-stage ports of the multi-stage parallel processing system1 (FIG. 1) can be implemented either as distinct physical ports or as e.g. time or frequency division channels on shared physical connections.
• Terms software program, application program, application and program are used interchangeably in this specification, and each generally refer to any type of computer software able to run on data processing systems based on the architecture.
• Term ‘task’ in this specification refers to a part of a program, and covers the meanings of related terms such as actor, thread etc.
• References to a “set of” units of a given type, such as programs, logic modules or memory segments can, depending on the nature of a particular embodiment or operating scenario, refer to any positive number of such units.
• While the term ‘processor’ more specifically refers to the processing core fabric510 (FIG. 5), it will also be used, where it streamlines the text, to refer to a processor system500 (FIGS. 3-4) and a processing stage300 (FIGS. 1 and 3) within thesystem1.
• Typically, there will be one task type per an application hosted per each of the processing stages300 in thesystem1 perFIG. 1 (while thesystem1 supports multiple processing stages and multiple application programs per each stage).
• A master type task of a single application-instance (app-inst) hosted at entry stage processing system can have multiple parallel worker type tasks of same type hosted at multiple worker stage processing systems. Generally, a single upstream app-inst-task can feed data units to be processed in parallel by multiple downstream app-inst-task:s within thesame system1.
• Identifiers such as ‘master’ and ‘worker’ tasks or processing stages are not used here in a sense to restrict the nature of such tasks or processing; these identifiers are here used primarily to illustrate a possible, basic type of distribution of workloads among different actors. For instance, the entry stage processing system may host, for a given application, simply tasks that pre-process (e.g. qualify, filter, classify, format, etc.) the RX data units and pass them to the worker stage processing systems as tagged with the pre-processing notations, while the worker stage processor systems may host the actual master (as well as worker) actors conducting the main data processing called for by such received data units. Generally, a key idea of the presented processing system and IO architecture is that the worker stages of processing—where bulk of the intra-application parallel and/or pipelined processing typically is to occur, providing the performance gain of using parallel task instances and/or pipelined tasks to lower the processing latency and improve the on-time IO throughput—receive their input data units as directed to specific destination app-task instances, while the external parties are allowed to communicate with a given application program hosted on asystem1 through a single, constant contact point (the ‘master’ task hosted on the entry stage processor, possibly with its specified instance).
• Specifications below assume there to be X IO ports, Y core slots on a processor500, M application programs configured and up to N instances per each application for a processor500, and up to T tasks (or processing stages) per a given application (instance), wherein the capacity parameters X, Y, M, N and T are some positive integers, and wherein the individual ports, cores, applications, tasks and instances, are identified with their ID # s ranging from 0 to said capacity parameter value less 1 for each of the measures (ports, cores, apps, instances, tasks or processing stages).
• The invention is described herein in further detail by illustrating the novel concepts in reference to the drawings. General symbols and notations used in the drawings:
• Boxes indicate a functional digital logic module; unless otherwise specified for a particular embodiment, such modules may comprise both software and hardware logic functionality.
• Arrows indicate a digital signal flow. A signal flow may comprise one or more parallel bit wires. The direction of an arrow indicates the direction of primary flow of information associated with it with regards to discussion of the system functionality herein, but does not preclude information flow also in the opposite direction.
• A dotted line marks a border of a group of drawn elements that form a logical entity with internal hierarchy, such as the modules constituting the multi-core processing fabric110 inFIG. 1.
• Lines or arrows crossing in the drawings are decoupled unless otherwise marked.
• For clarity of the drawings, generally present signals for typical digital logic operation, such as clock signals, or enable, address and data bit components of write or read access buses, are not shown in the drawings.
• FIGS. 1-10 and related descriptions below provide specifications for embodiments and aspects of an extensible, multi-stage, application program load and type adaptive, multi-stage parallel data processing system, including for the input and output (IO) subsystems thereof.
• FIG. 1 illustrates, according to an embodiment of the invention, a multi-stage manycore processor system architecture, comprising a set of application processing load adaptive manycore processing stages interconnected by a packet destination app-task-inst controlled cross connect. The discussion in the following details an illustrative example embodiment of this aspect of the invention. Note that the number of processing stages300 andXC ports40 shown is just for a purpose of one possible example; various implementations may have any practical number of such stages and ports.
• General operation of the application load adaptive, multi-stage paralleldata processing system1 perFIG. 1, focusing on the main IO data flows, is as follows: Thesystem1 provides data processing services to be used by external parties (e.g. client portions of programs whose server portions run on the system1) over networks. Thesystem1 receives data units (e.g. messages, requests, data packets or streams to be processed) from its users through itsRX network ports10, and transmits the processing results to the relevant parties through itsTX network ports50. Naturally the network ports of the system ofFIG. 1 can be used also for connecting with other (intermediate) resources and services (e.g. storage, data bases etc.) as and if necessary for the system to produce the requested processing results to the relevant external parties. The application program tasks executing on the entrystage manycore processor300 are typically of ‘master’ type for parallelized applications, i.e., they manage and distribute the processing workloads for ‘worker’ type tasks running on the worker stage manycore processing systems300 (note that theprocessor system300 hardware implementations are similar for all instances of the processing system300). The instances of master tasks typically do preliminary processing (e.g. message/request classification, data organization) and workflow management based on given input packet(s), and then typically involve appropriate worker tasks at their worker stage processors (seeFIG. 1 for context) to perform the data processing called for by the given input packet(s), potentially in the context of and in connection with other related input packets and/or other data elements (e.g. in memory or storage resources accessible by the system1) referred to by such input packets. (Note thatprocessors300 can also have access to the system memories through interfaces additional to the IO ports shown in the FIGS.) Accordingly, the master tasks typically pass on the received data units (using direct connection techniques to allow most of the data volumes being transferred to bypass the actual processor cores) through theXC200 to the worker stage processors, with the destination app-task instance identified for each data unit. As a security feature, to provide isolation among the different applications620 (FIG. 6) configured to run on theprocessors300 of thesystem1, by default the hardware controller540 (FIGS. 5 and 7) of eachprocessor300, rather than any application software (executing at a given processor300), inserts the application ID # bits for the data packets passed to theXC200. That way, the tasks of any given application running on the processing stages300 in asystem1 can trust that the packets they received from theXC200 are from its own application. Note that thecontroller540 determines, and therefore knows, the application ID # that each given core within its processor500 is assigned to at any given time, via the app-inst tocore mapping info560 that the controller produces (FIGS. 4, 5 and 7). Therefore thecontroller540 is able to insert the presently-assigned app ID # bits for the inter-task data units being sent from the cores of itsprocessing stage300 over the core-specific output ports20,210 (FIG. 3) to theXC200.
• While the processing of any given application (server program) at asystem1 is normally parallelized and/or pipelined, and involves multiple tasks (many of which tasks and instances thereof can execute simultaneously on the manycore arrays of the processors300), the system enables external parties to communicate with any such application hosted on thesystem1 without having to know about any specifics (incl. existence, status, location) of their internal tasks or parallel instances thereof. As such, the incoming data units to thesystem1 are expected to identify just their destination application (and where it matters, the application instance number), rather than any particular task within it. Moreover, the system enables external parties to communicate with any given application hosted on asystem1 through any of thenetwork ports10,50 without knowing whether or at which cores any instance of the given application task (app-task) may be executing at any time. Furthermore, the architecture enables the aforesaid flexibility and efficiency through its hardware logic functionality, so that no system or application software running on thesystem1 needs to either be aware of whether or where any of the instances of any of the app-tasks may be executing at any given time, or through which port any given inter-task or external communication may have occurred or be occurring. Thus thesystem1, while providing a highly dynamic, application workload adaptive usage of the system processing and communications resources, allows the software running on and/or remotely using the system to be designed with a straightforward, abstracted view of the system: the software (both the server programs hosted on asystem1 as well as clients etc. remote agents interacting with such programs hosted on the system) can assume that all applications (as well all their tasks and instances thereof) hosted on by the givensystem1 are always executing on their virtual dedicated processor cores within the system. Also, where useful, said virtual dedicated processors can also be considered by software to be time-share slices on a single (very high speed) processor. The architecture thereby enables achieving, at the same time, both the vital application software development productivity (simple, virtual static view of the actually highly dynamic processing hardware) together with high program runtime performance (scalable parallel program execution with minimized overhead) and resource efficiency (adaptively optimized resource allocation) benefits. Techniques enabling such benefits of the architecture are described in the following through more detailed technical study of thesystem1 and its sub systems.
• InFIG. 1, theprocessing stage300 specificXC IO ports40 contain one input and output port per a processing core at any given stage, with such individual IO ports of any given stage identified asports #0,1, . . ,Y-1 (noting that the input ports of any given processing stage are not tied to or associated with any particular core, but instead, input data units can be connected from all input ports to all cores of any given processing stage as needed). TheXC200 provides data unit (referred to as packet) level switched, restriction-free, any-to-any connectivity among the mentioned processing stage IO ports of the same port index # y (y=0,1, . . . Y-1): E.g. the XC provides packet-switched connectivity to input ports #5 of eachstage300 from the output ports #5 of eachstage300 of the system1 (assuming Y is greater than 5). This cross-connectivity is implemented through data source specific buffering and load-weigh prioritized fair muxing of packets to the XC output ports (i.e. to processingstage300 input ports30). An embodiment of a micro-architecture for such XC output port logic is as illustrated inFIG. 2.
• FIG. 2 presents, according to an embodiment of the invention, a functional block diagram for forming at the XC200 a given input port290 (seeFIG. 3) to a givenprocessor300 ofFIG. 1. The discussion in the following details an illustrative example embodiment of this aspect of the invention.
• TheXC200 subsystems perFIG. 2 provide data connectivity to a given input port # y (y=0,1, . . . Y-1) from output ports # y of each of theprocessing systems300 of thesystem1, and there is a subsystem perFIG. 2 for eachinput port290 to eachprocessing system300. Note that theXC200 is formed by providing the processingstage input port290 specific subsystem perFIG. 2 for each input port of each of the processing stages300 interconnected by theXC200. At each a subsystem perFIG. 2, there are first-in first-out buffers (FIFOs)260 per each preceding processing stage of the input packets, in which FIFOs packets whose identified next processing app-task ID matches the processing stage to which the XC output in question connects to (referred to as the local processing stage inFIG. 2) are queued, plus anarbitration logic module270 for selecting, at times when a new packet is to be sent over the localXC output port290, an appropriate input-stagespecific FIFO260 from which to send the next packet to the local processing stage. The next input-stage specific FIFO is chosen by thearbitrator270 by running a round-robin selection algorithm first among those input-stage specific FIFOs whose fill level is indicated265 as being above a defined threshold, and in the absence of such FIFOs, running a plain round robin algorithm across all the FIFOs for the given XC output port. For theFIFO module260 selected by the arbitrator at any given time, the arbitrator activates the read enablesignal271. The arbitrator also controls the mux (mux)280 to connect to itsoutput290 thepacket output265 from theFIFO module240 selected at the time.
• Note that inFIG. 2, there aresubmodules250 and260 associated with the input data streams from each of the precedingprocessing stages #0,1, . . . T-1 similar to those drawn in more detail for thestage #0. Though not included inFIG. 2, similar signals (fill level indication265 and read enable271) exist between each of the preceding processing stagespecific FIFO modules240 and thearbitrator270, as is shown between the module specific to precedingstage #0 and the arbitrator.
• Moreover, the set of applications610 (FIG. 6) configured to run on thesystem1 have their tasks identified by (intra-application) IDs according to their descending order of relative (time-averaged) workload levels. The sum of the intra-application task IDs (each representing the workload ranking of its tasks within its application) of the app-tasks hosted at any givenprocessing system300 is equalized by appropriately configuring the tasks of differing ID # s (i.e. of differing workload levels) across the applications for eachprocessing system300, to achieve optimal overall load balancing. For instance, in case of four processing stages300 (as shown in the example ofFIG. 1), if the system is shared among four applications and each of that set of applications has four tasks, for each application of that set, the busiest task (i.e. the worker task most often called for or otherwise causing the heaviest processing load among the tasks of the app) is givenID #0, the second busiesttask ID #1, the thirdbusiest ID #2, and thefourth ID #3. To balance the processing loads across the applications among theworker stage processors300 of thesystem1, the worker stage processor # t gets task ID # t+m (rolling over at 3 to 0) of the application ID # m (t=0,1, . . . T-1; m=0,1, . . . M-1). In this example scenario of four application streams, four worker tasks per app as well as fourprocessors300 in asystem1, the above scheme causes the task IDs of the set of apps to be placed at the processing stages per the table below (t and m have the meaning per the previous sentence):

• App ID# m (to right) =>
  Stage# t (below)	0	1	2	3
  0	0	1	2	3
  1	1	2	3	0
  2	2	3	0	1
  3	3	0	1	2

• As seen in the example of the table above, the sum of the task ID # s (with each task ID # representing the workload ranking of its task within its application) is the same for any row i.e. for each of the four processing stages of this example. Applying this load balancing scheme for differing numbers of processing stages, tasks and applications is straightforward based on the above example and the discussion herein. In such system wide processing load balancing schemes supported bysystem1, a key idea is that eachworker stage processor300 gets one of the tasks from each of the applications so that collectively the tasks configured for any given worker stage processor500 have the intra-app task IDs of the full range fromID #0 through ID # T-1 with one task of each ID # value (wherein the intra-app task ID # s are assigned for each app according to their descending busyness level) so that the overall task processing load is to be, as much as possible, equal across all worker-stage processors300 of thesystem1. Advantages of these schemes supported bysystems1 include achieving optimal utilization efficiency of the processing resources and eliminating or at least minimizing the possibility or effects of any of the worker-stage processors300 forming system wide performance bottlenecks. InFIG. 2, each of thelogic modules250 for forming write enable signal performs the algorithm per above, thus selecting which packets (based on their destination app-task ID #) to pass to itslocal FIFO260 from its associated preceding processing stage.
• In the following, we continue by exploring the internal structure and operation of a givenprocessing stage300, a high level functional block diagram for which is shown inFIG. 3.
• FIG. 3, presents, according to an embodiment of the invention, a top level functional block diagram for any of themanycore processing systems300 in the multi-stage parallel processing system inFIG. 1, involving a RX logic subsystem and manycore processor subsystem. The discussion in the following details an illustrative example embodiment of this aspect of the invention.
• As illustrated inFIG. 3, any of theprocessing systems300 of system1 (FIG. 1) has, besides manycore processor system500 (detailed inFIGS. 5-10), anRX logic subsystem400, which connects input data units (packets) from any of theinput ports290 to any of the processing cores of the manycore processor500, according at which core their indicated destination app-task-instance may be executing at any given time. Moreover, the monitoring of the buffered input data load levels per their destination app-task instances at theRX logic subsystem400 allows optimizing the allocation of processing core capacity of the local manycore processor500 among the application tasks hosted on the givenprocessing system300. The structure and operation of an embodiment of theRX logic subsystem400 for the manycore processing system perFIG. 3 is detailed below in connection withFIG. 4.
• FIG. 4 illustrates, according to an embodiment of the invention, main data flows of theRX logic subsystem400, which connects input packets from any of theinput ports290 to any of the processing cores of the processor system500, according to at which core the destination app-task instance indicated for any given input may be executing at any given time. The discussion below details an illustrative example embodiment of this aspect of the invention.
• The RX logic connecting the input packets from theinput ports290 to the local processing cores arranges the data from all theinput ports290 according to their indicated destination applications and then provides for each core of the manycore processor500 read access to the input packets for the app-task instance executing on the given core at any given time. At this point, it shall be recalled that there is one app-task hosted per processing stage500 per each of the applications610 (FIG. 6), while there can be up to Y instances in parallel for any given app-task. Since there is one app-task per app per processing stage, the term app-inst in the following, including in and in connection toFIGS. 4-11, means an instance of an application task hosted at the processing stage under study.
• The main operation of the RX logic shown inFIG. 4 is as follows: First input packets arriving over thenetwork input ports290 are grouped to a set of destination applicationspecific FIFO modules420, whose fill levels (in part) drives the allocation and assignment of cores at the local manycore processor500 among instances of the app-tasks hosted on that processor, in order to maximize the total (value-add, e.g. revenue, of the) data processing throughput across all the application programs configured for the manycore processor system. From the app-instspecific buffers415 within the destinationapplication buffer modules420, the input packets are then connected450 to specific cores of the processor500 where their associated app-inst:s are executing at a given time (when the given app-inst is selected for execution). At greater level of detail, the data flow of theRX logic400, and its interactions with its local manycore processor500, are detailed in the following:
• The input packets arriving over the input ports are demuxed by individual RX network port specific demultiplexers (demux:s)405 to their indicated (via overhead bits) destination app-inst and input port specific FIFO buffers410. At theRX subsystem400, there will thus be FIFOs410 specific to eachinput port290 for each app-inst able to run on the manycore processor500. InFIG. 4, the app-instspecific collections415 and application-scope collections420 of theseFIFOs410 is shown for theapplication ID #1 to keep the diagram reasonably simple; however similar arrangements exist for each of theapplications IDs #0 through # N. Similarly, thoughFIG. 4 for clarity shows the connections from theinput port #1 to theapplication FIFOs425, and connections from the input ports just toapplication #1 FIFOs, these connections shall be understood to exist between eachinput port290 andRX FIFO collection420 of each application. A reason for these collections of input portspecific buffers410 for each app-inst is to allow writing all input packets directly, without delaying or blocking other data flows, to a buffer, even when a given destination app-inst was receiving data from multiple, and up to all, of the input ports at the same time. Moreover, the app-inst level connection of packets between the processing stages300 (enabled in part by the app-task-inst specific buffering415) also allows thesystem1 to efficiently maintain continued data flows across the system specific to particular instances of application tasks originating or consuming a given sequence of data packets.
• Logic at each applicationscope FIFO module420signals430 to the manycore processor system500 the present processing load level of the application as a number of the ready to execute instances of the given app-task and, as well as the priority order of such instances. An app-inst is taken as ready to execute when it has unread input data in itsFIFO410. As discussed in greater depth in connection withFIGS. 5-7, based on theinfo430 from the applications, the processor system500 periodically, e.g. at intervals of1024 processor clock cycles, assigns to each of its cores one of the locally hosted app-inst:s, in a manner as to maximize the system wide (value add of the) data processing throughput. According to such periodic assignments, the processor system500 provides control for themux:s450 to connect to each of its cores the read data bus440 from the appropriate app-inst FIFO415. Logic at app-inst FIFO module415 selects (at packet boundaries) one of its the portspecific FIFOs410 for reading out data to its associated mux atmodule450 at times when the given app-inst is selected to execute. Similar FIFO read selection algorithm is used in this case as what was described in connection toFIG. 2 for selecting a FIFO for reading onto aport290. In addition, thecontroller540 also dynamically controls mux:s580 (FIG. 5) to appropriately connect input data readcontrol information590 to the app-instance FIFOs415, to direct reading of input data by the app-inst selected to execute on any of its cores at the given time.
• For the info flow430 (FIGS. 4 and 5), which is used for optimally allocating and assigning the cores of the processor500 among the locally hosted app inst:s, the number of ready to execute instances for a given app-task is taken as its number ofFIFO modules415 that at the given time have one or more of their input portspecific FIFOs410 non-empty. Moreover, the logic at each app-scope FIFO module420 ranks its instances in an execution priority order (for the info flow430) based on how manynon-empty FIFOs410 each of its instance-scope modules415 has. This logic forms, from themodules415, X instances (equal to number of input ports) of N-bit vectors wherein the bit[n] of such vector instance # x (=0,1, . . . X) represents whether app-instance # n at the time has (no more and no less than) xnon-empty FIFOs410. At times of writing430 the updated app-inst priority lists to the local manycore processor system500, this logic atmodule420 scans these vectors for active bits, starting from priority 0 (highest priority), and proceeding toward greater instance priority index (signifying descending instance priority), and from the maximum value of x (that is, X and proceeding down toward 0). When this logic encounters an active bit, the logic writes the ID # number of its associated app-inst (i.e., the index of that bit, n) to the current priority index at the (descending) priority-indexed app-inst ID # look-up-table (see a format for the LUT at Table 3 shown later in this specification, under heading “Summary of process flow and information formats . . . ”), at the controller module (540,FIGS. 5 and 7) of the manycore processor system500, for thecontroller540 to use when selecting the instances of the given application to execute on the cores allocated to that application on the following core allocation period. Furthermore, the above discussed logic at the any given app-scope FIFO module420 starts its successive runs of the app-inst priority list production from a revolving bit index n (incrementing by one after each run of the algorithm, from 0 through N-1 and rolling over to 0 and so forth), to over time provide equality among the instances of the given application (having same number of non-empty port FIFOs410).
• TheRX logic subsystem400 is implemented by digital hardware logic and is able to operate without software involvement. Note that the concept of software involvement as used in this specification relates to active, dynamic software operation, not to configuration of the hardware elements according aspects and embodiments of the invention through software where no change in such configuration is needed to accomplish the functionality according to this specification.
• This specification continues by describing the internal elements and operation of the processor system500 (for theprocessing system300 ofFIG. 3, within the multi-stageparallel processing system1 ofFIG. 1), a block diagram for an embodiment of which is shown inFIG. 5.
• FIG. 5 presents, according to an embodiment of the invention, a functional block diagram for the manycore processor system500 dynamically shared among instances of the locally hosted application program tasks, with capabilities for application processing load adaptive allocation of the cores among the applications, as well as for (as described in relation toFIGS. 8-10) accordant dynamically reconfigurable memory access by the app-task instances. The discussion below details an illustrative example embodiment of this aspect of the invention.
• Any of thecores520 of a system500 can comprise any types of software program processing hardware resources, e.g. central processing units (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), digital signal processors (DSPs) or application specific processors (ASPs) etc., and in programmable logic (FPGA) implementation, the core type for anycore slot520 is furthermore reconfigurable per expresseddemands430 of the active app-tasks.
• As illustrated inFIG. 5, the processor system500 comprises anarray515 ofprocessing cores520, which are dynamically shared among a the locally hosted tasks of a set of application programs configured to run on thesystem1. The logic at application specific modules420 (FIG. 4) write via info flows430 their associated applications'capacity demand indicators530 to thecontroller540. Each of theseindicators530, referred to herein as core-demand-figures (CDFs), express howmany cores520 their associated app-task is presently able utilize for its ready to execute instances. Moreover, the RX logic for the individual applications write the application CDFs to a look-up-table (LUT) at the controller per Table 1 format, as described later on in this specification under heading “Summary of process flow and information formats . . . ”. Furthermore, thesecapacity demand expressions430, written tocontroller540 by the RX logic (at module420) of each locally hosted app-task, include alist535 identifying its ready instances in a priority order per LUT of Table 3 format, also described later on in this specification under the heading “Summary of process flow and information formats . . . ”.
• A hardware logic basedcontroller module540 within the processor system500, through a periodic process, allocates and assigns thecores520 of the processor500 among the set of applications610 (FIG. 6) and their instances, at least in part based on theCDFs530 of the applications. This application instance to core assignment process700 (seeFIGS. 6 and 7) is exercised periodically, e.g. at intervals such as once per a defined number (for instance 64, 256 or 1024, or so forth) of processing core clock or instruction cycles. The application instance to core assignment algorithms of thecontroller540 produce, for the application instances on the processor500,identification550 of their execution cores (if any, at any given time), as well as for the cores of thefabric515,identification560 of their respective app-inst:s to process. As shown inFIGS. 4 and 5, the app-inst tocore mapping info560 also directs themuxing450 of input data from an appropriate app-inst to each core of thearray515. The app-inst tocore mapping info550 is also used to configure themuxing580 of the input data read control signals from the core array515 (via info flow590) to theFIFOs415 of the app-inst assigned for any given core.
• Note that the verb “to assign” is used herein reciprocally, i.e., it can refer, depending on the perspective, both to assignment ofcores520 to app-inst:s640 (seeFIG. 6) as well as to mapping of app-inst:s640 tocores520. This is due to that the allocation and mapping algorithms of thecontroller540 cause one app-inst640 to be assigned per any givencore520 of thearray515 by each run of such algorithms700 (seeFIGS. 6 and 7). As such, when it is written here, e.g., that a particular core # x is assigned to process a given app-inst # y, it could have also been said that app-inst # y is assigned for processing by core # x. Similarly, references such as “core # x assigned to process app-inst # y”, could be written in the (more complex) form of “core # x for processing app-inst # y assigned to it”, and so forth.
• Thecontroller module540 is implemented by digital hardware logic within the system, and the controller exercises its repeating algorithms, including those of process700 perFIGS. 6-7, without software involvement.
• FIG. 6 illustrates, according to an embodiment of the invention, context for the process700 performed by thecontroller logic540 of the system500, repeatedly selecting and placing the to-be-executing instances640 of the set of locally hosted app-tasks610 to their assignedtarget cores520 within thearray515. The discussion below details an illustrative example embodiment of this aspect of the invention.
• PerFIG. 6, each individual app-task620 configured for a system500 has itscollection630 of itsinstances640, even though for clarity of illustration inFIG. 6 this set of instances is shown only for one of the applications within theset610 configured for a given instance of system500. Recalling that this multi-stage parallel processing architecture is designed for one task per application program per processing stage, in the following discussion (incl. text inFIGS. 7-10) of internal aspects of any of the processor systems500 at amulti-stage processor system1, references to ‘application’ (app) have the meaning of a locally hosted application task (app-task).
• Note also that, among theapplications620 there can be supervisory or maintenance software programs for the system500, used for instance to support configuringother applications620 for the system500, as well as provide general functions such as system boot-up and diagnostics.
• In the context ofFIGS. 4-6,FIG. 7 provides a data flow diagram for an embodiment of the process700, which periodically selects app-inst:s for execution, and places each selected-to-execute app-inst640 within thesets630 to one of thecores520 within thearray515.
• FIG. 7 presents, according to an embodiment of the invention, major phases of the app-inst to core mapping process700, used for maximizing the (value-add of the) application program processing throughput of themanycore fabric510 shared among a number of software programs. The discussion below details an illustrative example embodiment of this aspect of the invention.
• The process700, periodically selecting and mapping the to-be-executing instances of theset610 of applications to the array of processing cores within the processor500, involves the following steps:
• (1) allocating710 thearray515 of cores among the set ofapplications610, based onCDFs530 andCEs717 of the applications, to produce for each application620 a number ofcores520 allocated to it715 (for the time period in between the current and the next run of the process700); and
• (2) based at least in part on the allocating710, for each given application that was allocated at least one core: (a) selecting720, according to the app-inst priority list535, the highest priority instances of the given application for execution corresponding to the number of cores allocated to the given application, and (b)mapping730 each selected app-inst to one of the available cores of thearray515, to produce, i) per each core of the array, anidentification560 of the app-inst that the given core was assigned to, as well as ii) for each app-inst selected for execution on thefabric515, anidentification550 of its assigned core. The periodically produced and updatedoutputs550,560 of thecontroller540 process700 will be used for periodically re-configuring connectivity through the mux:s450 (FIGS. 4) and580 (FIG. 5) as well as the fabricmemory access subsystem800, as described in the following with references toFIGS. 8-10.
• FIGS. 8-10. and related specifications below describe embodiments of the on-chipmemory access subsystem800 of a manycore processor500 providing non-blocking processing memory access connectivity (incl. for program instructions and interim processing results) between the app-inst:s assigned to cores of thearray515 and app-inst specific memories at thememory array850. The manycore fabric memory access subsystem perFIGS. 8-10 comprises hardware logic, and is able to operate without software involvement. The capabilities perFIGS. 8-10 provide logic, wiring, memory etc. system resource efficient support for executing any app-inst640 at anycore520 within the processor500 at any given time (as controlled by thecontroller540 that periodically optimizes the allocation and assignment of cores of thearray515 among the locally hosted app-inst:s620), while keeping each given app-inst connected to its own (program instruction and interim processing results containing) memory element atmemory array850.
Fabric Memory Access Subsystem for Manycore Processor Per FIG.5
• FIG. 8 presents, according to an embodiment of the invention, logic arrangements to provide access by app-inst:s executing at the core array to app-inst specific memory locations within the core fabric. The discussion below details an illustrative example embodiment of this aspect of the invention.
• PerFIG. 8, to direct write and read control access from the array ofcores515 to the array of app-instspecific memories850, thecontroller540 identifies550, for a cross-connect (XC)830 between thecore array515 andmemory array850, the presently active source core for write and readcontrol access810,840 to each given app-instspecific segment950 within thememory array850. Similarly, to direct read access by the array ofcores515 to the array of app-instspecific memories850, the controller also identifies560 for theXC870 the memory segment950 (at the memory array850) of the app-inst presently assigned for each givencore520 of the array.
• Based on thecontrol560 by thecontroller540 for a given core indicating that it will be subject to an app-inst switchover, the currently executing app-inst is made to stop executing and its processing state from the core is backed up810,940 (FIGS. 8 and 9) to thesegment950 of that exiting app-inst at the memory array850 (FIGS. 8 and 9), while the processing state of the next instance assigned to execute on the given core is retrieved1010,880 to the core from the memory array850 (FIGS. 8 and 10). Note that ‘processing state’ herein refers to processing status data, if any, stored at thecore520, such as the current executing app-inst specific processor register file contents etc. interim processing results. During these app-inst switching proceedings the operation of the cores subject to instance switchover is controlled through thecontroller540 and switchover logic at thecores520, with said switchover logic backing up and retrieving the outgoing and incoming app-inst processing states from thememories850. Cores not indicated bycontroller540 as being subject to instance switchover continue their processing uninterruptedly through the Core Allocation Period (CAP) transition times.
• Note that applying of updated app-instID # configurations560 for the corespecific mux:s1020 of XC870 (seeFIGS. 8 and 10), as well as applying of the updated processing coreID # configurations550 for the app-instspecific mux:s910 at XC830 (seeFIGS. 8 and 9), can be safely and efficiently done on one mux at a time basis (reducing the system hardware and software implementation complexity and thus improving cost-efficiency), since none of the app-inst:s needs to know whether or at which core itself or any other app-inst is executing within thesystem1 at any given time. Instead of relying on knowledge of the their respective previous, current (if any at any given time) or future execution cores by either the app-task instances or any system software, the architecture enables flexibly running any instance of any app-task at any core of theprocessing systems300 that they are hosted on.
• FIG. 9 shows, according to an embodiment of the invention, at a more detail level, a portion of the logic system800 (seeFIGS. 5 and 8 for context) for providing write access and read access control from the cores of the system500 to thememories950 specific to their presently assigned execution app-inst:s. The discussion below details an illustrative example embodiment of this aspect of the invention.
• TheXC830 comprises a set of app-instspecific mux:s910, each of which selects the write and read control access bus from the set810 identified550 to it for write direction access940 to its associated app-instspecific segment950 at thememory array850. Each such app-instspecific mux910 makes these selections based oncontrol550 from thecontroller540 that identifies the core (if any) presently assigned to process its associated app-inst.
• At digital logic design level, the write access (incl. read control) bus instance within the set810 from the core ID # y (y is an integer between 0 and Y-1) is connected to the data input # y of eachmux910 ofXC830, so that theidentification550 of the appropriate source core ID # by the controller to a givenmux910 causes theXC830 to connect the write and read control buses810 from thecore array515 to the proper app-instspecific segments950 within thememory850. Thecontroller540 uses information from an application instance ID # addressed look-up-table per Table 4 format (shown later in this specification, under heading “Summary of process flow and information formats . . . ’) in supplying the present processing core (if any)identifications550 to the application instancespecific mux:s910 of XC830 (theinfo flow550 also includes a bit indicating whether a given app-inst was selected for execution at a given time—if not this active/inactive app-inst indicator bit causes themuxes910 to disable write access to such app-inst's memory950).
• In addition to write data, address and enable (and any other relevant write access signals), the buses810 and940 include the read access control signals including the read address tomemory950, from their source cores to their presently assigned processing app-inst:s'memory segments950, to direct read access from the cores of thearray515 to thememory array850, which function is illustrated inFIG. 10.
• FIG. 10 shows, according to an embodiment of the invention, at a greater level of detail a portion of the logic system perFIG. 8 for connecting to each given processing core within a system500 (FIG. 5) the read data bus from thememory950 specific to the app-inst assigned to any given core at any given time. The discussion below details an illustrative example embodiment of this aspect of the invention.
• The XC870 (seeFIG. 8 for context) comprises corespecific mux:s1020, each of which selects the read data bus (from set1010) of the app-inst presently identified560 for processing by the core associated with a givenmux1020 forconnection880 to thatcore520.
• Similar to the digital logic level description of the mux910 (in connection toFIG. 9), the logic implementation for functionality illustrated inFIG. 10, is such that the read data bus instance (from set1010) associated with application instance ID # m (m is an integer between 0 and M-1) is connected to the data input # m of eachmux1020 instance, so that the identification (by the controller540) of the active applicationinstance ID # 560 for each of these corespecific mux:s1020 ofXC870 causes theXC870 to connect each givencore520 of thearray515 in read direction to the memory segment950 (at memory array850) that is associated with its indicated560 active app-inst. Thecontroller540 uses information from a core ID# addressed look-up-table per Table 5 format (shown in later in this specification under the heading “Summary of process flow and information formats . . . ”) in supplying the activeapplication instance identifications560 to the corespecific mux:s1020 ofXC870.
Module-Level Implementation Specifications for the Application Instance to Core Placement Process
• The steps of the process700 (FIG. 7), according to an embodiment of the invention, are described in the following. The process700 is implemented by hardware logic in thecontroller module540 of a processor500 perFIG. 5. Similar processes700 are run (independently) for each of the processing stages300 of a givensystem1.
• Objectives for thecore allocation algorithm710 include maximizing the processor500 core utilization (i.e., generally minimizing, and so long as there are ready app-inst:s, eliminating core idling), while ensuring that each application gets at least up to its entitled (e.g. a contract based minimum) share of the processor500 core capacity whenever it has processing load to utilize such amount of cores. Each application configured for a given manycore processor500 is specified its entitledquota717 of the cores, at least up to which quantity of cores it is to be allocated whenever it is able to execute on such number of cores in parallel; sum of the applications' core entitlements (CEs)717 is not to exceed the total number of core slots in the given processor500. Each application program on the processor500 gets from each run of the algorithm710:
• (1) at least the lesser of its (a)CE717 and (b) Core Demand Figure (CDF)530 worth of the cores (and in case (a) and (b) are equal, the ‘lesser’ shall mean either of them, e.g. (a)); plus
• (2) as much beyond that to match its CDF as is possible without violating condition (1) for any application on the processor500; plus
• (3) the application's even division share of any cores remaining unallocated after conditions (1) and (2) are satisfied for allapplications610 sharing the processor500.
• Thealgorithm710 allocatingcores520 toapplication programs620 runs as follows:
• (i) First, anyCDFs530 by all application programs up to theirCE717 of the cores within thearray515 are met. E.g., if a given program # P had its CDF worth zero cores and entitlement for four cores, it will be allocated zero cores by this step (i). As another example, if a given program # Q had its CDF worth five cores and entitlement for one core, it will be allocated one core by this stage of thealgorithm710. To ensure that each app-task will be able at least communicate with other tasks of its application at some defined minimum frequency, the step (i) of thealgorithm710 allocates for each application program, regardless of the CDFs, at least one core once in a specified number (e.g. sixteen) of process700 runs.
• (ii) Following step (i), any processing cores remaining unallocated are allocated, one core per program at a time, among the application programs whosedemand530 for processing cores had not been met by the amounts of cores so far allocated to them by preceding iterations of this step (ii) within the given run of thealgorithm710. For instance, if after step (i) there remained eight unallocated cores and the sum of unmet portions of the program CDFs was six cores, the program # Q, based on the results of step (i) per above, will be allocated four more cores by this step (ii) to match its CDF.
• (iii) Following step (ii), any processing cores still remaining unallocated are allocated among the application programs evenly, one core per program at time, until all the cores of thearray515 are allocated among the set ofprograms610. Continuing the example case from steps (i) and (ii) above, this step (iii) will allocate the remaining two cores to certain two of the programs (one for each). Programs with zero existing allocated cores, e.g. program # P from step (i), are prioritized in allocating the remaining cores at the step (iii) stage of thealgorithm710.
• Moreover, the iterations of steps (ii) and (iii) per above are started from a revolving application program ID # s within theset610, e.g. so that the application ID # to be served first by these iterations is incremented by one (and returning toID #0 after reaching the highest application ID #) for each successive run of the process700 and thealgorithm710 as part of it. Furthermore, the revolving start app ID # s for the steps (ii) and (iii) are kept at offset from each other equal to the number of app:s sharing the processor divided by two.
• Accordingly, allcores520 of thearray515 are allocated on each run of the related algorithms700 according to applications processing load variations while honoring their contractual entitlements. The allocating of the array ofcores515 by thealgorithm710 is done in order to minimize the greatest amount of unmet demands for cores (i.e. greatest difference between the CDF and allocated number of cores for any given application620) among the set ofprograms610, while ensuring that any given program gets at least its entitled share of the processing cores following such runs of the algorithm for which it demanded530 at least such entitledshare717 of the cores.
• To study further details of the process700, let us consider the cores of the processor500 to be identified ascore #0 through core # (Y-1). For simplicity and clarity of the description, we will from hereon consider an example processor500 under study with a relatively small number Y of sixteen cores. We further assume here a scenario of relatively small number of also sixteen application programs configured to run on that processor500, with these applications identified for the purpose of the description herein alphabetically, as application # A through application # P. Note however that the architecture presents no actual limits for the number of cores, applications or their instances for a given processor500. For example, instances of processor500 can be configured a number of applications that is lesser or greater than (as well as equal to) the number of cores.
• Following theallocation710 of the set ofcores515 among theapplications610, for each active application on the processor500 (that were allocated one or more cores by the latest run of the core allocation algorithm710), the individual ready-to-execute app-inst:s640 are selected720 and mapped730 to the number of cores allocated to the given application. Oneschedulable640 app-inst is assigned per onecore520 by each run of the process700.
• The app-inst selection720 step of the process700 produces, for each given application of theset610, lists725 of to-be-executing app-inst:s to be mapped730 to the subset of cores of thearray515. Note that, as part of the periodic process700, theselection720 of to-be-executing app-inst for any given active application (such that was allocated710 at least one core) is done, in addition to following of a chance inallocation710 of cores among applications, also following a change in app-inst priority list535 of the given application, including when not in connection toreallocation710 of cores among the applications. The active app-inst tocore mapping730 is done logically individually for each application, however keeping track of which cores are available for any given application (by first assigning for each application their respective subsets of cores among thearray515 and then running themapping730 in parallel for each application that has new app-inst:s to be assigned to their execution cores).
• The app-inst tocore mapping algorithm730 for any application begins by keeping any continuing app-inst:s, i.e., app-inst:s selected to run on thearray515 both before and after the present app-inst switchovers, mapped to their current cores also on the next allocation period. After that rule is met, any newly selected app-inst:s for the application are mapped to available cores. Specifically, assuming that a given application was allocated k (a positive integer) cores beyond those used by its continuing app-inst:s, k highest priority ready but not-yet-mapped app-inst:s of the application are mapped to k next available (i.e. not-yet-assigned) cores within thearray515 allocated to the application. In case that any given application had less than k ready but not-yet-mapped app-inst:s, the highest priority other (e.g. waiting, not ready) app-inst:s are mapped to the remaining available cores among the number cores allocated to the given application; these other app-inst:s can thus directly begin executing on their assigned cores once they become ready. The placing of newly selected app-inst:s, i.e., selected instances of applications beyond the app-inst:s continuing over the switchover transition time, is done by mapping such yet-to-be-mapped app-inst:s in incrementing app-inst ID # order to available cores in incrementing core ID # order.
Summary of Process Flow and Information Formats Produced and Consumed by Main Stages of the App-Inst to Core Mapping Process
• According to an embodiment of the invention, the production of updatedmappings560,550 between selected app-inst:s725 and theprocessing core slots520 of the processor500 by the process700 (FIG. 7, implemented bycontroller540 inFIG. 5) from the Core Demand Figures (CDFs)530 and app-inst priority lists535 of the applications620 (FIG. 6), as detailed above with module level implementation examples, proceeds through the following stages and intermediate results (in reference toFIG. 7):
• TheRX logic400 produces for eachapplication620 itsCDF530, e.g. an integer between 0 and the number of cores within thearray515 expressing how many concurrently executable app-inst:s640 the application presently has ready to execute. Theinformation format530, as used by the core allocation phase of the process700, is such that logic with thecore allocation module710 repeatedly samples the application CDF bits written430 to it by the RX logic400 (FIGS. 4, 5 and 7) and, based on such samples, forms an application ID-indexed table (per Table 1 below) as a ‘snapshot’ of the application CDFs as an input for next exercising of the process700. An example of such format of theinformation530 is provided in Table 1 below—note however that in the hardware logic implementation, the application ID index, e.g. for range A through P, is represented by a digital number, e.g., inrange 0 through 15, and as such, the application ID # serves as the index for the CDF entries of this array, eliminating the need to actually store any representation of the application ID for the table providing information530:

• 	TABLE 1
  	Application ID index	CDF value
  	A	0
  	B	12
  	C	3
  	. . .	. . .
  	P	1

• Regarding Table 1 above, note that the values of entries shown are simply examples of possible values of some of the application CDFs, and that the CDF values of the applications can change arbitrarily for each new run of the process700 and itsalgorithm710 using snapshots of the CDFs.
• Based (in part) on the application ID # indexedCDF array530 per Table 1 above, thecore allocation algorithm710 of the process700 produces another similarly formatted application ID indexed table, whoseentries715 at this stage are the number of cores allocated to each application on the processor500. as shown in Table 2 below:

• 	TABLE 2
  	Application ID index	Number of cores allocated
  	A	0
  	B	6
  	C	3
  	. . .	. . .
  	P	1

• Regarding Table 2 above, note again that the values of entries shown are simply examples of possible number of cores allocated to some of the applications after a given run on thealgorithm710, as well as that in hardware logic thisarray715 can be simply the numbers of cores allocated per application, as the application ID # for any given entry of this array is given by the index # of the given entry in thearray715.
• The app-inst selection sub-process720, done individually for each application of theset610, uses as its inputs the per-application core allocations715 per Table 2 above, as well as priority orderedlists535 of ready app-inst IDs of any given application. Each such applicationspecific list535 has the (descending) app-inst priority level as its index, and, as a values stored at each such indexed element, the intra-application scope instance ID #, plus, for processors500 supporting reconfigurable core slot, an indication of the target core type (e.g. CPU, DSP, GPU or a specified ASP) demanded by the app-inst, as shown in the example of Table 3 below:

• TABLE 3
  App-inst priority
  index # -- appli-	App-inst ID #
  cation internal	(identifies the app-	Target core type
  (lower index value	inst-specific memory	(e.g., 0 denotes CPU,
  signifies more	950 within the	1 denotes DSP, and
  urgent app-inst)	memory array 850)	2 denotes GPU, etc.)
  0	0	0
  1	8	2
  2	5	2
  . . .	. . .
  15	2	1

• Notes regarding implicit indexing and non-specific examples used for values per Tables 1-2 apply also for Table 3.
• TheRX logic400 writes430 for eachapplication620 of theset610 the intra-appinstance priority list535 per Table 3 tocontroller540, to be used as an input for the active app-inst selection sub-process720, which produces per-application listings725 of selected app-inst:s, along with their corresponding target core types where applicable. Based at least in part on the application specific active app-inst listings725, the core to app-instassignment algorithm module730 produces a core ID # indexedarray550 indexed with the application and instance IDs, and provides as its contents the assigned processing core ID (if any), per Table 4 below:

• 	TABLE 4
  			Processing core ID
  			(value ‘Y’ here
  			indicates that the
  		Instance ID (within	given app-inst is not
  	Application	the application	presently selected for
  	ID -- MSBs	of column to the	execution at any
  	of index	left) -- LSBs of index	of the cores)
  	A	0	0
  	A	1	Y
  	. . .	. . .
  	A	15	3
  	B	0	1
  	B	1	Y
  	. . .	. . .
  	B	15	7
  	C	0	2
  	. . .	. . .	. . .
  	P	0	15
  	. . .	. . .
  	P	15	Y

• Finally, by inverting the roles of index and contents from Table 4, anarray560 expressing to which app-inst ID # each given core of thefabric510 got assigned, per Table 5 below, is formed. Specifically, Table 5 is formed by using as its index the contents of Table 4 i.e. the core ID numbers (other than those marked ‘Y’), and as its contents the app-inst ID index from Table 4 corresponding each core ID # (along with, where applicable, the core type demanded by the given app-inst, with the core type for any given selected app-inst being denoted as part of the information flow725 (FIG. 7) produced from a data array per Table 3). This format for the app-inst tocore mapping info560 is illustrated in the example below:

• TABLE 5
  		Instance ID	Core type
  		(within the appli-	(e.g., 0 denotes CPU,
  Core ID	Application	cation ofcolumn	1 denotes DSP, and
  index	ID	to the left)	2 denotes GPU, etc.)
  0	P	0	0
  1	B	0	0
  2	B	8	2
  . . .	. . .	. . .	. . .
  15	N	1	1

• Regarding Tables 4 and 5 above, note that the symbolic application IDs (A through P) used here for clarity will in digital logic implementation map into numeric representations, e.g. in the range from 0 through 15. Also, the notes per Tables 1-3 above regarding the implicit indexing (i.e., core ID for any given app-inst ID entry is given by the index of the given entry, eliminating the need to store the core IDs in this array) apply for the logic implementation of Tables 4 and 5 as well.
• In hardware logic implementation the application and the intra-app-inst IDs of Table 5 are bitfields of same digital entry at any given index of thearray560; the application ID bits are the most significant bits (MSBs) and the app-inst ID bits the least significant (LSBs), and together these identify the active app-inst'smemory950 in the memory array850 (for the core with ID # equaling the given index to app-inst ID # array per Table 5).
• By comparing Tables 4 and 5 above, it is seen that the information contents at Table 4 are the same as at Table 5; the difference in purposes between them is that while Table 5 gives for anycore slot520 its active app-inst ID # 560 to process (along with the demanded core type), Table 4 gives for any given app-inst its processing core550 (if any at a given time). As seen fromFIGS. 8-10, the Table 5 outputs are used to configure the corespecific mux:s1020 atXC870, while the Table 4 outputs are used to configure the app-instspecific mux:s910 atXC830.
• Note further that, according to the process700, when the app-inst tocore placement module730 gets an updated list of selected app-inst:s725 for one or more applications620 (following a change in either or both of core toapplication allocations715 or app-inst priority lists535 of one or more applications), it will be able to identify from Tables 4 and 5 the following:
• I. The set of activating, to-be-mapped, app-inst:s, i.e., app-inst:s withinlists725 not mapped to any core by the previous run of theplacement algorithm730. This set I is produced by taking those app-inst:s from the updated selected app-inst lists725, per Table 4 format, whose core ID # was ‘Y’ (indicating app-inst not active) in the latest Table 4;
• II. The set of deactivating app-inst:s, i.e., app-inst:s that were included in the previous, but not in the latest, selected app-inst lists725. This set II is produced by taking those app-inst:s from the latest Table 4 whose core ID # was not ‘Y’ (indicating app-inst active) but that were not included in the updated selected app-inst lists725; and
• III. The set of available cores, i.e.,cores520 which in the latest Table 5 were assigned to the set of deactivating app-inst:s (set II above).
• Theplacer module730 uses the above info to map the active app-inst:s to cores of the array in a manner that keeps the continuing app-inst:s executing on their present cores, thereby maximizing utilization of thecore array515 for processing theuser applications620. Specifically, theplacement algorithm730 maps the individual app-inst:s640 within the set I of activating app-inst:s in their increasing app-inst ID # order for processing at core instances within the set III of available cores in their increasing core ID # order.
• Moreover, regarding placement of activating app-inst:s (set I as discussed above), theplacement algorithm730 seeks to minimize the amount of core slots for which the activating app-inst demands a different execution core type than the deactivating app-inst did. I.e., the placer will, to the extent possible, place activating app-inst:s to such core slots where the deactivating app-inst had the same execution core type. E.g., activating app-inst demanding the DSP type execution core will be placed to the core slots where the deactivating app-inst:s also had run on DSP type cores. This sub-step in placing the activation app-inst:s to their target core slots uses as one of its inputs the new and preceding versions of (the core slot ID indexed) app-inst ID and core type arrays per Table 5, to allow matching activating app-inst:s and the available core slots according to the core type.
Architectural Cost-Efficiency Benefits
• Advantages of the system capacity utilization and application performance optimization techniques described in the foregoing include:
• Increased user's utility, measured as demanded-and-allocated cores per unit cost, as well as, in most cases, allocated cores per unit cost
• Increased revenue generating capability for the service provider from CE based billables, per unit cost for asystem1. This enables increasing the service provider's operating cash flows generated or supported by asystem1 of certain cost level. Also, compared to a given computing service provider's revenue level, this reduces the provider's cost of revenue, allowing the provider to offer more competitive contract pricing, by passing on at least a portion of the savings to the customers (also referred to as users) runningprograms620 on thesystem1, thereby further increasing the customer's utility of the computing service subscribed to (in terms of compute capacity received when needed, specifically, number of cores allocated and utilized for parallel program execution) per unit cost of the service.
• At a more technical level, the dynamic parallel processing techniques perFIGS. 1-10 allow cost-efficiently sharing a manycore based computing hardware among a number of application software programs, each executing on a time variable, dynamically optimized number of cores, maximizing the whole system data processing throughput, while providing deterministic minimum system processing capacity access levels for each of the applications configured to run on the given system.
• Moreover, thehardware operating system540 and the processing fabric memory access subsystem800 (described in relation toFIGS. 5-10) enables running any application task on a processor500 at any of its cores at any given time, in a restriction free manner, with minimized overhead, including minimized core idle times, and without a need for a collective operating system software during the system runtime operation (i.e., after its startup or maintenance configuration periods) to handle matters such as monitoring, prioritizing, scheduling, placing and policing user applications and their tasks. Thehardware OS540 fabricmemory access subsystem800 achieve this optimally flexible use of the cores of the system in a (both software and hardware) implementation efficient manner (including logic and wiring resource efficiently), without a need for core to core level cross-connectivity, as well as memory efficiently without a need for the cores to hold more than one app-task-inst's processing state (if any needed) within their memories at a time. Instead of needing core to core cross-connects for inter-task communications and/or memory image transfers, thememory access subsystem800 achieves their purposes by more efficiently (in terms of system resources needed) through a set of mux:s connecting the cores with appropriate app-task-inst specific memory segments at the fabric memory arrays. Thesystem1 architecture enables application tasks running on any core of any processing stage of the system to communicate with any other task of the given application without requiring any such communicating tasks to know whether and where (at which core) any other task is running at any given time. The system thus provides architecturally improved scalability for parallel data processing systems as the number of cores, applications and tasks within applications grows.
• To summarize, the dynamic parallel execution environment provided by thesystem1 enables each application program to dynamically get a maximized number of cores that it can utilize concurrently so long as such demand-driven core allocation allows all applications on the system to get at least up to their entitled number of cores whenever their processing load actually so demands.
• The presented architecture moreover provides straightforward IO as well as inter-app-task communications for the set of application (server) programs configured to run on the system perFIG. 1. The external world is typically exposed, for any given one of such applications, with a virtual singular app-instance instance (proxy), while the system supports executing concurrently any number of instances of any given app-task on thecore fabrics510 of the processing stages300 (within the limit of core slot capacity of the system).
• To achieve this, the architecture involves an entry-stage (“master-stage”) processing system (typically with the master tasks of the set ofapplications610 hosted on it), which distribute the received data processing workloads for worker-stage processing systems, which host the rest of the tasks of the application programs, with the exception of the parts (tasks) of the program hosted on the exit stage processing system, which typically assembles the processing results from the worker stage tasks for transmission to the appropriate external parties. External users and applications communicates directly with the entry and (in their receive direction, exit) stage processing system i.e. with the master tasks of each application, and these master tasks pass on data load units (requests/messages/files/steams) for processing by the worker tasks on the worker-stage processing systems, with each such data unit identified by their app-task instance ID # s, and with the app ID # bits inserted bycontrollers540, to ensure inter-task communications stay within their authorized scope, by default within the local application. There may be multiple instances of any given (locally hosted) app-task executing simultaneously on both the entry/exit as well as worker stage manycore processors, to accommodate variations in the types and volumes of the processing workloads at any given time, both between and within the applications620 (FIG. 6).
• The received and buffered data loads to be processed drive, at least in part, the dynamic allocating and assignment of cores among the app-inst:s at any given stage of processing by the multi-stage manycore processing system, in order to maximize the total (value adding, e.g. revenue-generating) on-time IO data processing throughput of the system across all the applications on the system.
• The architecture provides a straightforward way for the hosted applications to access and exchange their IO and inter-task data without concern of through which input/output ports any given IO data units may have been received or are to be transmitted at any given stage of processing, or whether or at which cores of their host processors any given source or destination app-task instances may be executing at any given time. External parties (e.g. client programs) interacting with the (server) application programs hosted on thesystem1 are likewise able to transact with such applications through a virtual static contact point, i.e., the (initially non-specific, and subsequently specifiable instance of the) master task of any given application, while within the system the applications are dynamically parallelized and/or pipelined, with their app-task instances able to activate, deactivate and be located without restrictions.
• The dynamic parallel program execution techniques thus enable dynamically optimizing the allocation of parallel processing capacity among a number of concurrently running application software programs, in a manner that is adaptive to realtime processing loads of the applications, with minimized system (hardware and software) overhead costs. Furthermore, the system perFIGS. 1-10 and related descriptions enable maximizing the overall utility computing cost-efficiency. Accordingly, benefits of the application load adaptive, minimized overhead multi-user parallel data processing system include:
• Practically all the application processing time of all the cores across the system is made available to the user applications, as there is no need for a common system software to run on the system (e.g. to perform on the cores traditional system software tasks such as time tick processing, serving interrupts, scheduling, placing applications and their tasks to the cores, billing, policing, etc.).
• The application programs do not experience any considerable delays in ever waiting access to their (e.g. contract-based) entitled share of the system processing capacity, as any number of the processing applications configured for the system can run on the system concurrently, with a dynamically optimized number of parallel (incl. pipelined) cores allocated per an application.
• The allocation of the processing time across all the cores of the system among the application programs sharing the system is adaptive to realtime processing loads of these applications.
• There is inherent security (including, where desired, isolation) between the individual processing applications in the system, as each application resides in its dedicated (logical) segments of the system memories, and can safely use the shared processing system effectively as if it was the sole application running on it. This hardware based security among the application programs and tasks sharing the manycore data processing system perFIGS. 1-10 further facilitates more straightforward, cost-efficient and faster development and testing of applications and tasks to run on such systems, as undesired interactions between the different user application programs can be disabled already at the system hardware resource access level.
• The dynamic parallel execution techniques thus enable maximizing data processing throughput per unit cost across all the user applications configured to run on the shared multi-stage manycore processing system.
• The presented manycore processor architecture with hardware based scheduling and context switching accordingly ensures that any given application gets at least its entitled share of the dynamically shared parallel processing system capacity whenever the given application actually is able to utilize at least its entitled quota of system capacity, and as much processing capacity beyond its entitled quota as is possible without blocking the access to the entitled and fair share of the processing capacity by any other application program that is actually able at that time to utilize such capacity that it is entitled to. For instance, the dynamic parallel execution architecture presented thus enables any given user application to get access to the full processing capacity of the manycore system whenever the given application is the sole application offering processing load for the shared manycore system. In effect, the techniques perFIGS. 1-10 provide for each user application with an assured access to its contract based percentage (e.g. 10%) of the manycore system throughput capacity, plus most of the time much greater share, even 100%, of the processing system capacity, with the cost base for any given user application being largely defined by only its committed access percentage worth of the shared manycore processing system costs.
• The references [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8] and [9] provide further reference specifications and use cases for aspects and embodiments of the invented techniques. Among other such aspects disclosed in these references, the reference [4], at its paragraphs 69-81 and itsFIG. 11, provides descriptions for a billing subsystem1100 (seeFIG. 7 herein for context) of acontroller540 of a manycore processing system500 according to an embodiment of the invention.
• This description and drawings are included to illustrate architecture and operation of practical and illustrative example embodiments of the invention, but are not meant to limit the scope of the invention. For instance, even though the description does specify certain system parameters to certain types and values, persons of skill in the art will realize, in view of this description, that any design utilizing the architectural or operational principles of the disclosed systems and methods, with any set of practical types and values for the system parameters, is within the scope of the invention. For instance, in view of this description, persons of skill in the art will understand that the disclosed architecture sets no actual limit for the number of cores in a given system, or for the maximum number of applications or tasks to execute concurrently. Moreover, the system elements and process steps, though shown as distinct to clarify the illustration and the description, can in various embodiments be merged or combined with other elements, or further subdivided and rearranged, etc., without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It will also be obvious to implement the systems and methods disclosed herein using various combinations of software and hardware. Finally, persons of skill in the art will realize that various embodiments of the invention can use different nomenclature and terminology to describe the system elements, process phases etc. technical concepts in their respective implementations. Generally, from this description many variants will be understood by one skilled in the art that are yet encompassed by the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims (21)

1. (canceled)

2. A system for managing execution of a plurality of programs on an array of processing units, the system comprising:

a control unit comprising hardware logic and/or software logic configured to repeatedly reconfigure instance assignment to the array of processing units on behalf the plurality of programs, the operations comprising, for each cycle of a plurality of cycles,

monitoring, for each program of the plurality of programs, an amount of processing input at one or more input buffers of a plurality of input buffers buffering processing input for the respective program, and

for each program of the plurality of programs,

i) assigning one or more task instances of the respective program for concurrent processing of the amount of processing input to one or more processing units of the array of processing units allocated to the respective program, and

ii) adjusting, based at least in part on a difference between a previously allocated number of processing units allocated to the respective program on a previous cycle of the plurality of cycles and a currently allocated number of processing units of the one or more processing units allocated to the respective program, a relative portion of the amount of processing Second Preliminary Amendment input to be processed by at least one instance of the one or more task instances assigned;

wherein assigning results in a plurality of newly assigned processing units of the array of processing units for one or more programs of the plurality of programs, wherein

each newly assigned processing unit was assigned to a different task instance of a respective one of the plurality of programs during a previous cycle of the plurality of cycles; and

wherein the operations further comprise causing connection, in accordance with the assigning, of the processing input from each buffer of at least a portion of the plurality of input buffers to a different unit of the plurality of newly assigned processing units assigned to a respective program of the plurality of software programs to provide respective processing input to the respective program that the respective processing input is directed to.

3. The system ofclaim 2, wherein:

for one or more cycles of the plurality of cycles where a current number of the one or more processing units allocated to any given program of the plurality of programs is increased by the allocating, adjusting comprises relatively decreasing the portion of the amount of processing input to be processed by at least one task instance of the respective program; and

for one or more other cycles of the plurality of cycles where a current number of the one or more processing units allocated to any given program of the plurality of programs is decreased by the allocating, adjusting comprises relatively increasing the portion of the amount of processing input to be processed by at least one task instance of the respective program.

4. The system ofclaim 2, wherein monitoring the amount of processing input comprises monitoring a number of buffered data units at the one or more input buffers of the plurality of input buffers buffering processing input for the respective program.

5. The system ofclaim 2, wherein:

the assigning comprises storing assignment information identifying each assignment between a respective task instance of a given program of the plurality of programs and a respective processing unit of the plurality of processing units to which the respective task instance is assigned; and

causing connection comprises automatically connecting using hardware logic of the system based on the assignment information.

6. The system ofclaim 2, wherein the controller is operable to perform the operations by hardware logic operating without software involvement for at least a portion of the plurality of cycles.

7. The system ofclaim 2, wherein the processing input comprises at least one of a plurality of data records for processing, a plurality of instructions for processing, an identification of data records for processing, and an identification of instructions.

8. The system ofclaim 2, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of processing units are reconfigurable processing units.

9. The system ofclaim 8, wherein, for at least certain cycles of the plurality of cycles and for at least one unit of the newly assigned processing units, the operations comprise reconfiguring at least one reconfigurable processing unit to a configuration associated with a task instance allocated to the at least one processing unit.

10. The system ofclaim 8, wherein for at least for at least certain cycles of the plurality of cycles, assigning the one or more task instances comprises prioritizing assignment of a given task instance to a given reconfigurable processing unit having a configuration associated with the given task instance.

11. The system ofclaim 8, wherein the reconfigurable processing units comprise field programmable logic arrays (FPGA) units.

12. The system ofclaim 8, wherein the reconfigurable processing units are configurable in at least two different ways, to provide at least two different configurations of reconfigurable processing units.

13. The system ofclaim 8, wherein, for at least for at least certain cycles of the plurality of cycles, assigning the one or more task instances comprises maintaining assignment of any assigned instances previously assigned to one of the reconfigurable processing units to the respective reconfigurable processing unit.

14. The system ofclaim 2, wherein the plurality of cycles begin periodically every predetermined period of time.

15. A method for managing execution of a plurality of software applications on an array of processing cores, the method comprising, for each cycle of a plurality of cycles:

for each software application of a plurality of software applications,

monitoring, by a controller comprising hardware logic and/or software logic, a processing load input at one or more input buffers of a plurality of input buffers, wherein the one or more input buffers are provided for buffering information for the respective software application, wherein one or more processing cores are allocated to the respective software application based on the monitoring, and

assigning, by the controller, one or more task instances of the respective software application for processing of the processing load input to the one or more processing cores allocated to the respective software application;

causing connection, by the controller in accordance with the assigning, of the processing input from each buffer of at least a portion of the plurality of input buffers to a different core of the array of processing cores to connect processing input directed to a respective software application with a given task instance of the respective software application; and

dynamically forwarding, by the controller, processing load input from the plurality of input buffers to the processing cores in accordance with the assigning of a present cycle of the plurality of cycles such that, for any given one of the processing cores, data packets are distributed to the given processing core from one or more buffers of the plurality of input buffers that are specific to the task instance assigned to the given processing core for the present cycle.

16. The method ofclaim 15, wherein:

the processing load input comprises a plurality of input data units; and

for a given application of the plurality of software applications having at least two task instances, the method further comprises buffering incoming input data units of the processing load input destined for the given application to at least two input buffers corresponding to the at least two task instances, wherein

buffering comprises, for each input data unit of the plurality of input data units, selecting a receiving task instance to receive the respective input data unit by

determining whether the respective input data unit identifies a destination instance of the one or more task instances of the respective software application,

if the destination instance is specified, selecting the destination instance as the receiving task instance, and

if no destination instance is specified, selecting, from the at least two task instances of the given application, an available instance for processing the respective input data unit as the receiving task instance, wherein the available instance is identified at least in part based on respective volumes of input data units at the input buffers of the at least two task instances, and

forwarding the respective input data unit to the input buffer of the receiving task instance.

17. The method ofclaim 16, wherein the available instance is identified further based on prioritizing any task instance of the at least two task instances having no input data units in the input buffer of the respective task instance.

18. The method ofclaim 16, wherein the available instance is identified further in on ranking the at least two task instances according to ascending levels of data input units buffered to the buffers of the at least two task instances, wherein one or more instances of the at least two task instances having a lowest level of data input units buffered are prioritized for selection.

19. The method ofclaim 15, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of processing units are reconfigurable processing units.

20. The system ofclaim 19, wherein the reconfigurable processing units are configured in at least two different configurations.

21. The method ofclaim 20, wherein, for at least for at least certain cycles of the plurality of cycles, assigning the one or more task instances comprises prioritizing assignment of a given task instance to a given reconfigurable processing unit having a configuration of the at least two different configurations associated with the given task instance.

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