GAST: a flexible and extensible tool for evaluating multiprocessor assignment and scheduling techniques

Automatic tool support for scheduling applications on multiprocessor platforms is of paramount importance both to guarantee critical application demands and to keep development costs down. In this paper we present GAST, an object-oriented evaluation environment for multiprocessor assignment and scheduling techniques. GAST is based on a decomposition approach where existing assignment and scheduling techniques have been broken down into a set of common operations. By combining these operations into a complete scheduling process, GAST offers a powerful toolbox of existing assignment and scheduling techniques. GAST has been implemented on several popular operating systems and is accompanied by a graphic visualization tool that allows for flexible interaction with the application scheduling process