A Deterministic Model for Evaluating the Performance of a Multiple Processor System with a Shared Bus

The operation and performance of a multiple processor system with a shared bus is studied. The model developed is applicable to real time computations consisting of two pipelined tasks in which the first task is partitioned into a number of independent subtasks that are executed in parallel. It is proved that after a number of task executions the operation of the system becomes periodic. The speed of convergence to this periodic state is estimated and an expression for the cycle time is derived. The throughput is also evaluated and is proved to be independent of the order with which the processors transmit data through the bus.