Parallel Execution of a Sequence of tasks on a Asynchronous Multiprocessor

Abstract : Given a sequence of tasks to be performed serially, a parallel algorithm is proposed to accelerate the execution of the tasks on an asynchronous multiprocessor by taking advantage of fluctuations in the execution times. A parallel program requiring no critical section is given to implement the algorithm and its correctness is proved. A spacewise more efficient implementation is also given but requires the use of critical sections. An analysis is presented for both implementations to estimate the speed-up achievable with the parallel algorithm. When the execution times are exponentially distributed, and no critical section is used, the algorithm with k processes yields a speed-up of order sq rt of k. (Author)