Run-time allocation of functions to a hardware accelerator

摘要

An accelerator work allocation mechanism determines at run-time which functions to allocate to a hardware accelerator based on a defined accelerator policy, and based on an analysis performed at run-time. The analysis includes reading the accelerator policy, and determining whether a particular function satisfies the accelerator policy. If so, the function is allocated to the hardware accelerator. If not, the function is allocated to the processor.

主权项

1. An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor; a hardware accelerator coupled to the at least one processor; a memory coupled to the at least one processor; a computer program residing in the memory; an accelerator policy residing in the memory that specifies criteria that determines when a function is allocated to the hardware accelerator; and an accelerator work allocation mechanism residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor during a first runtime of the computer program, the accelerator work allocation mechanism allocating during the first runtime of the computer program the function in the computer program to the hardware accelerator when the criteria in the accelerator policy is satisfied based on processor estimates of performance for the function and hardware accelerator estimates of performance for the function, wherein the hardware accelerator executes the function during the first runtime of the computer program, wherein the accelerator work allocation mechanism includes the accelerator policy.