Different approaches to real-time application allocation to a multiprocessor system

Existing approaches to the design of real-time application assignment algorithms are classified and evaluated. The different approaches considered are: one described by T.L. Casavant and J.G. Kuhl (IEEE Trans. Soft. Eng., vol.14, no.2, 1988), load balancing, interprocessor communication minimization, fixed allocation first, those that use precedence consideration methods, and constraint allocation. The influence of the module size ratio and module replication are also noted. A method is then briefly reviewed that tries to combine all mentioned policies in a flexible way. This means the user can always emphasize the criterion which is the most important for a particular real-time application.