Energy and Time Efficient Scheduling of Tasks with Dependencies on Asymmetric Multiprocessors

In this work we study the problem of scheduling tasks with dependencies in multiprocessor architectures where processors have different speeds. We present the preemptive algorithm “Save-Energy” that given a schedule of tasks it post processes it to improve the energy efficiency without any deterioration of the makespan. In terms of time efficiency, we show that preemptive scheduling in an asymmetric system can achieve the same or better optimal makespan than in a symmetric system. Motivited by real multiprocessor systems, we investigate architectures that exhibit limited asymmetry: there are two essentially different speeds. Interestingly, this special case has not been studied in the field of parallel computing and scheduling theory; only the general case was studied where processors have K essentially different speeds. We present the non-preemptive algorithm “Remnants” that achieves almost optimal makespan. We provide a refined analysis of a recent scheduling method. Based on this analysis, we specialize the scheduling policy and provide an algorithm of (3 + o(1)) expected approximation factor. Note that this improves the previous best factor (6 for two speeds). We believe that our work will convince researchers to revisit this well studied scheduling problem for these simple, yet realistic, asymmetric multiprocessor architectures.