Efficient priority-aware thread scheduling

Abstract

A priority-based scheduling and execution of threads may enable the completion of higher-priority tasks above lower-priority tasks. Occasionally, a high-priority thread may request a resource that has already been reserved by a lower-priority thread, and the higher-priority thread may be blocked until the lower-priority thread relinquishes the reservation. Such prioritization may be acceptable if the lower-priority thread is able to execute comparatively unimpeded, but in some scenarios, the lower-priority thread may execute at a lower priority than a third thread that also has a lower priority than the high-priority thread. In this scenario, the third thread is effectively but incorrectly prioritized above the high-priority thread. Instead, upon detecting this scenario, the device may temporarily elevate the priority of the lower-priority thread over the priority of the third thread until the lower-priority thread relinquishes the resource, thereby reducing the waiting period of the high-priority thread for the requested resource.