EURASIP Journal on Embedded Systems 
Volume 2008 (2008), Article ID 518904, 15 pages
doi:10.1155/2008/518904
Research Article

Assessing Task Migration Impact on Embedded Soft Real-Time Streaming Multimedia Applications

Andrea Acquaviva,1 Andrea Alimonda,2 Salvatore Carta,2 and Michele Pittau2

 1Institute of Information Science and Technology, Electronics and Systems Design Group, University of Verona, Verona 37100, Italy
2Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Cagliari, Cagliari 09100, Italy
Received 4 April 2007; Revised 10 August 2007; Accepted 19 October 2007

Recommended by Alfons Crespo

Abstract

Multiprocessor systems on chips (MPSoCs) are envisioned as the future of embedded platforms such as game-engines, smart-phones and palmtop computers. One of the main challenge preventing the widespread diffusion of these systems is the efficient mapping of multitask multimedia applications on processing elements. Dynamic solutions based on task migration has been recently explored to perform run-time reallocation of task to maximize performance and optimize energy consumption. Even if task migration can provide high flexibility, its overhead must be carefully evaluated when applied to soft real-time applications. In fact, these applications impose deadlines that may be missed during the migration process. In this paper we first present a middleware infrastructure supporting dynamic task allocation for NUMA architectures. Then we perform an extensive characterization of its impact on multimedia soft real-time applications using a software FM Radio benchmark.