Patent ID: 8352950
Filing Date: 2013-01-08
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for use in a computing environment to run a variety of applications, the apparatus comprising: one or more logical processors (LPs) comprising physical processors that form a central processing unit; one or more logical partitions (LPARs) configured to each access a predetermined share of processing resources of the LPs in accordance with predefined instructions, each LPAR being configured to operate in a horizontal mode or a vertical mode and to perform operational mode switching; and an LPAR manager configured to determine an operational mode of each of the LPARs by determining whether each of the LPARs is operating in the horizontal mode or the vertical mode and to determine any available amount of an excess of the share of the processing resources of the LPs, the LPAR manager being further configured to dispatch the processing resources of at least a subset of the LPs to the LPARs in accordance with the respective predetermined shares of each of the LPARs, with respect to the determined operational mode of each of the LPARs and with respect to the amount, if any, of the excess share of the processing resources of the LPs, wherein, in the horizontal mode, an accessed share of processing resources of the LPs is distributed evenly among the subset and, in the vertical mode, the accessed share is distributed to zero, one or more high polarity LPs within the subset, one or more medium polarity LPs within the subset and zero, one or more low polarity LPs within the subset, and wherein operational mode switching from the horizontal mode to the vertical mode and vice versa is performed during use of the apparatus.