mcDVFS: cycle conserving DVFS scheduler for multi-core mixed criticality systems

Abstract

Multi-core architectures have grown to be a popular choice for deploying Mixed Criticality Systems (MCS). The focus of research in MCS has been to provide timing assurances for jobs with different criticality levels. Due to their significant processing demands and energy-aware/constrained nature, energy conservation in these systems is becoming mandatory. This article presents, mcDVFS, an energy management technique based on Dynamic-Voltage-and-Frequency-Scaling for multi-core MCS. mcDVFS achieves significant energy reduction while maintaining timing guarantees. It also prioritizes quality of service whenever feasible. Extensive experimental simulations show energy savings of ≈ 52% and 34% when compared to EDF-VD and EDF-VD with QoS.