Wait-free Synchronization in Quantum-based Multiprogrammed Systems ? (extended Abstract)

We consider wait-free synchronization in multiprogrammed uniprocessor and multiprocessor systems in which the processes bound to each processor are scheduled for execution using a scheduling quantum. We show that, in such systems, any object with consensus number P in Herlihy's wait-free hierarchy is universal for any number of processes executing on P processors, provided the scheduling quantum is of a certain size. We give an asymptotically tight characterization of how large the scheduling quantum must be for this result to hold.