Methods and apparatus for sharing slack in a time-partitioned system

A machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon capable of causing a processor to carry out a method, the method comprising:

• scheduling tasks to execute in different time partitions;
• determining available slack;
• and
• allocating slack to tasks in different time partitions.

A machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon capable of causing a processor to carry out a method, the method comprising:

• scheduling tasks to execute in different time partitions;
• collecting unscheduled execution time from at least one time partition;
• and
• allocating the unscheduled execution time to a task in another time partition.

In a time-partitioned system executing essential and non-essential tasks, a method of scheduling tasks comprising:

• determining available slack from the group consisting of timeline slack and reclaimed slack;
• pooling available slack in a common slack pool;
• and
• allocating slack from the common slack pool to tasks.

A machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon capable of causing a processor to carry out a method, the method comprising:

• scheduling tasks to execute in different time partitions;
• determining available slack from the group consisting of timeline slack and reclaimed slack;
• pooling available slack in a common slack pool;
• and
• allocating slack from the common slack pool to tasks.

In a time-partitioned system executing essential and non-essential tasks, a method of scheduling tasks comprising:

• determining available timeline slack;
• determining available reclaimed slack;
• pooling available timeline and reclaimed slack;
• and
• allocating slack to a task in any time partition.

A machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon capable of causing a processor to carry out a method, the method comprising:

• scheduling tasks to execute in different time partitions;
• determining available timeline slack;
• determining available reclaimed slack;
• pooling available timeline and reclaimed slack;
• and
• allocating slack to a task in any time partition.

A time-partitioned system comprising:

• a processor;
• a plurality of tasks operating on the processor, wherein each task of the plurality of tasks is of a task type selected from the group consisting of essential and non-essential, wherein each task of the plurality of tasks has associated with it at least one worst case execution time;
• and
• an executive in communication with the processor and controlling dispatching of tasks on the processor, wherein the executive comprises:
• a first module that determines available slack;
• and
• a second module that allocates available slack to tasks in different time partitions.