Deadlock-free scheduling of a task graph on a multi-core processor

A method for mapping a task graph specifying a neural network for execution by a multi-core processor, the task graph comprising a plurality of nodes interconnected by directed edges, each node of the plurality of nodes representing at least one computational task to be performed in executing the neural network, each directed edge of the directed edges directed from a source node of the plurality of nodes to a destination node of the plurality of nodes representing a dependency of the at least one computational task represented by the destination node on one or more event messages from the at least one computational task represented by the source node, the multi-core processor comprising a plurality of processor cores to exchange messages in a message exchange network on chip (NoC), the method comprising:

• for each node of the plurality of nodes, assigning a priority to the node of task graph and assigning the node to a particular processor core of the plurality of processor cores of the multi-core processor;
• and
• for each directed edge of the directed edges, assigning a priority to the directed edge and assigning the directed edge to an acyclic NoC path of the message exchange NoC,
• wherein the priority assigned to each node of the plurality of nodes is a highest one of one or more priorities assigned to one or more of the directed edges that are incoming edges of the node, and
• wherein the priority assigned to each directed edge of the directed edges exceeds the priority of the node of the plurality of nodes from which the directed edge is outgoing.