Computer Hardware Executive: Concept and Hardware Design.
D. Craig Wilcox · Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) · 1981
Large multiprocessing and distributed processing computer systems suffer from diminishing returns in system performance as additional processors are added. The slow execution speed of executive software is one of the principal causes of this phenomenon. The purpose of the executive software is to regulate the time when the various application programs gain access to the computer system resources. This task investigated the potential of special-purpose hardware to eliminate the execution-speed bottlenecks within executive software. A unit, named the Hardware Executive, was designed and fabricated. The Navy standard SDEX/M executive was used as a model. Algorithms were developed for the executive functions of task creation, task dispatching, intratask coordination, real-time clock management, and event-to-task registration and translation.