Abstract: A mechanism for sharing tasks is provided in which individuals in a share group may signal their intent to complete individual shared tasks and communicate that intent to other individuals in the share group. A required time for completion of the shared tasks may be associated with an individual's signaling of the intent to complete the shared task. The completion of the shared task by the individual signaling intent to complete may be monitored and, if not completed within the associated required time, the performance of the shared task may again be shared with the individuals of the share group. In this way, another individual may signal that individual's intent to perform the shared task and the process may be repeated until the shared task is completed.

Abstract: A mechanism is provided for biasing placement of a software thread on a currently idle and dispatched processor. The operating system starts with the last logical processor on which the software thread ran and determines whether that processor is idle and dispatched and considers each logical processor until a currently dispatched and idle logical processor is found. If a currently dispatched and idle logical processor is not found, then the operating system biases placing the software thread on an idle logical processor.

Abstract: A task management system for executing a task selected from tasks structuring a task combination, includes a judging unit for judging whether there is a task combination switchover request or not, a switchover unit for switching over the task combination after completing an execution of a specified task in the tasks structuring the task combination before the switchover when judging that there is the switchover request, and an execution unit for executing the task selected from the tasks structuring the task combination switched over by the switchover unit.

Abstract: In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for allocating at least one dedicated core and at least one shareable core to a first partition of a system, where the cores are owned by the first partition. During operation, the shareable core(s) may be made dynamically available for use in one or more other partitions of the system, while the first partition retains ownership of the shared core(s). Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Abstract: A plurality of virtual machines (VMs) is established and maintained by virtualization software on one or more physical servers. Desktop management software operates to provide the VMs to remote users as virtualized desktops. The desktop management software includes a rule engine that can be used to automate the policies of the organization. The rule engine manages the data center by controlling virtual infrastructure operations, such as power-on, power-off, suspension, and migration operations. The rule engine uses an event-condition-action paradigm, wherein an event causes a virtual infrastructure operation, possibly contingent on a condition. The rule engine provides for time-based scheduling of events in addition to system-based operations, which are triggered by events such as user logon and user logoff. The rule engine may also include the ability to automate the process of changing the properties of the virtual machines in a timely fashion.

Abstract: A mechanism for sharing tasks is provided in which individuals in a share group may signal their intent to complete individual shared tasks and communicate that intent to other individuals in the share group. A required time for completion of the shared tasks may be associated with an individual's signaling of the intent to complete the shared task. The completion of the shared task by the individual signaling intent to complete may be monitored and, if not completed within the associated required time, the performance of the shared task may again he shared with the individuals of the share group. In this way, another individual may signal that individual's intent to perform the shared task and the process may be repeated until the shared task is completed.

Abstract: A method and system for reorganizing a distributed computing landscape for dynamic load balancing is presented. A method includes the steps of collecting information about resource usage by a plurality of hosts in a distributed computing system, and generating a target distribution of the resource usage for the distributed computing system. The method further includes the step of generating an estimate of an improvement of the resource usage according to a reorganization plan.

Abstract: Architecture that employs probabilistic and/or decision-theoretic model(s) of application usage to predict application use and in view of bounded or limited-availability memory. The model(s) is applied with cost-benefit analysis to guide memory management in an operating system, in particular, for both decisions about prefetching and memory retention versus deletion or “paging out” of memory of lower priority items, to free up space for higher value items. Contextual information is employed in addition to computer action monitoring for predicting next applications to be launched. Prefetching is optimized so as to minimize user perceived latencies.

Abstract: A method of enabling state save and debug operations for co-routines for first failure data capture (FFDC) in an event-driven environment. A stack management utility allocates space for a context structure, which includes a state field, and a stack pointer in a buffer. A context management utility initializes a first context structure of a first co-routine and saves a state of the first context structure in response to an execution request for a second co-routine. The context management utility sets a second context structure as a current context. When execution of the current context is complete, the context management utility restores the first context structure of the first co-routine as the current context. If the state field is not set to a valid value, a state save function “state saves” all allocated co-routine stacks and context structures, restores the entire system to a previous valid state, and restarts operations.

Abstract: Systems and methods are described herein that discuss how a computing platform executing a virtualized environment, in one example, can be integrity verified adaptively and on demand. This may occur at initial runtime, as well as during continued operations, and allows the platform user to install software from various vendors without sacrificing the integrity measurement and therefore the trustworthiness of the platform.

Abstract: A technique for managing application workloads in a data processing system includes establishing a reserve resource allocation of a data processing resource for use by a data processing application having a need to utilize the resource, sharing a portion of the resource that is not part of the reserve resource allocation or otherwise utilized by the application with other applications, allowing the application to consume the reserve resource allocation when the application desires to increase its utilization of the resource, and replenishing the reserve resource allocation from the sharable portion of the resource as the application consumes the reserve resource allocation. Advantageously, the reserve resource allocation can be effectively managed so that the data processing resource is available to the application in order to reduce application latency without depriving other applications of the ability to use the resource.

Abstract: Fair share scheduling to divide the total amount of available resource into a finite number of shares and allocate a portion of the shares to an individual user or group of users as a way to specify the resource proportion entitled by the user or group of users. The scheduling priority of jobs for a user or group of users depends on a customizable expression of allocated and used shares by that individual user or group of users. The usage by the user or group of users is accumulated and an exponential decay function is applied thereto in order to keep track of historic resource usage for a user or group of users by one piece of data and an update timestamp.

Abstract: A system for sharing a trusted platform module (TPM) comprises a TPM operable to execute an operating system (OS)-level process, the TPM operable to pause the execution of the OS-level process and execute a non-OS-level process.

Abstract: A discussion of a dynamic configuration for a prefetcher is proposed. For example, a thread specific latency metric is calculated and provides dynamic feedback to the software on a per thread basis via the configuration and status registers. Likewise, the software can optionally use the information from the registers to dynamically configure the prefetching behavior and allows the software to be able to both query the performance and configure the prefetcher.

Abstract: A method of allocating a resource in a computer system having a plurality of operating systems, and related system, are disclosed. In at least one embodiment, the method includes providing an advanced configuration and power interface (ACPI) operating to facilitate interactions between at least one of the plurality of the operating systems and one or more of the resource, a hardware device, and firmware, and determining whether the resource is allocated to a first of the plurality of operating systems. The method further includes ejecting the resource from the first operating system, and allocating the resource to a second of the plurality of operating systems.

Abstract: A method comprises receiving into a planning tool a representative workload for a consumer. The method further comprises receiving into the planning tool quality of service desires of the consumer which define permitted degraded performance. In certain embodiments, the permitted degraded performance is time-limited wherein demands of the representative workload may exceed a pre-defined utilization constraint for at least one resource servicing the demands for no more than a pre-defined amount of contiguous time. The planning tool determines an allocation of demand of the consumer for each of a plurality of different classes of service (COSs). In certain embodiments, a first COS provides guaranteed resource access for servicing demand allocated thereto, and a second COS provides non-guaranteed resource access for servicing demand allocated thereto. In certain embodiments, the allocation of demand to the different COSs may be determined for both a normal mode and a failure mode of operation.

Abstract: A virtual machine is migrated between two servers. A method, at the first server, dismounts a volume on which all the files relating to the virtual machine are stored, and which was previously mounted at the first server. The method, at the second server, mounts the volume on which all the files relating to the virtual machine are stored, so that the second server can host the virtual machine. In this way, the virtual machine can be migrated without having to copy all the files from the first server to the second server. The files relating to the virtual machine are stored on a storage-area network (SAN).

Abstract: In a processor including a plurality of register groups, while a task is being executed using one of the register groups, a context of a task to be executed next is restored into another one of the register groups. If the execution of the task currently being executed is suspended before the restoration starts, the task execution is continued by using one of the register groups in which a context of a task executed previously remains and executing the task.

Abstract: Cell processor task management in a cell processor having a main memory, one or more power processor units (PPU) and one or more synergistic processing units (SPU), each SPU having a processor and a local memory is described. An SPU task manager (STM) running on one or more of the SPUs reads one or more task definitions stored in the main memory into the local memory of a selected SPU. Based on information contained in the task definitions the SPU loads code and/or data related to the task definitions from the main memory into the local memory associated with the selected SPU. The selected SPU then performs one or more tasks using the code and/or data.

Abstract: A data processing system allows processes to be checkpointed and restarted. The system saves the old process and thread identifications in a process table. When an application makes a system call passing the old process and/or thread identifications as parameters, the system performs a mapping algorithm to supply the system call with the new process and/or thread identifications. When a system call returns a new identification, the system performs a remapping algorithm to return the old identifications to the calling application program. When a group of process is restarted for which the process group leader was not checkpointed, the system creates a ghost process group leader.