TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments relate to workload scheduling in a processor.

BACKGROUND

In computer systems that are part of a large workplace or other entity, enterprise information technology (IT) facilitates management of large-scale deployment of software and services. Such deployments provide multiple manageability, maintenance, and security services on platforms using, e.g., scheduled tasks. Such operation comes at the cost of battery life and foreground responsiveness to end users. Many systems execute a large number of routine maintenance and background tasks, which are scheduled to run and over which end users do not have control, since these policies are configured and managed by IT administrators. Scheduled background task activity on an idle system may cause intermittent high processor utilization.

In addition to battery life impact, scheduled tasks run concurrently with foreground user critical tasks, resulting in resource contention and frequent thread migrations that impact foreground performance and responsiveness for user critical tasks. Average battery life on systems can be impacted by background software and services as they are scheduled to run as routine tasks, based on IT policies configured by administrator. This impacts mobility and user experience. In order to meet battery life expectations, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) may configure low power limits on a platform while operating in DC mode, which can adversely impact user experience and responsiveness due to frequency constraints, and can cause inconsistent user experience across AC and DC modes. In addition to battery life concerns, high processor utilization from background tasks causes high heat dissipation on fanless designs, impacting user experience. And on designs that have a fan, background activity causes the fan to rotate at high speeds, resulting in bad acoustics even while the system is idle, impacting user experience.

