Processor Scheduling for Linearly Connected Parallel Processors

A low-level parallel processor (LLPP) is one in which two or more machine-level operations are executed in parallel. This paper analyzes the use of linearly connected LLPP's for parallel evaluation of program fragments. A graph-theoretic model is presented which describes the communication constraints of linearly connected parallel processors. A tight, necessary condition for finding assignments of program fragments to linearly connected LLPP's that require no communication delays is presented. Also, several weak sufficient conditions have been found and efficient heuristics for determining optimal assignments have been developed.