A Microeconomic Scheduler for Parallel Computers

We describe a scheduler based on the microeconomic paradigm for scheduling on line a set of parallel jobs in a multiprocessor system In addition to increasing the system throughput and reducing the re sponse time we consider fairness in allocating system resources among the users and provide the user with control over the relative perfor mances of his jobs Every user has a savings account in which he receives money at a constant rate To run a job the user creates an expense ac count for that job to which he transfers money from his savings account The job uses the funds in its expense account to obtain the system re sources it needs The share of the system resources allocated to the user is directly related to the rate at which the user receives money the rate at which the user transfers money into a job expense account controls the job s performance We prove that starvation is not possible in our model Simulation results show that our scheduler improves both system and user performances in comparison with two di erent variable partitioning policies It is also e ective in guaranteeing fairness and providing control over the perfor mance of jobs