Patent ID: 7317726

Claim:
A method of bimodal pipelined scheduling in a scheduling system, said scheduling system including N scheduler modules, indexed as 1 to N, N>1, arranged in a predatermined order between a first scheduler module of index 1 and a last scheduler module of index N, where each scheduler module is exclusively associated with a pool of resources comprising resources of a first granularity and resources of a second granularity, said method comprising: receiving a first scheduling request specifying a first amount of resources of said first granularity; at a selected scheduler module, starting with said first scheduler module of index 1, attempting to allocate resources to satisfy said first scheduling request; where said attempting at said selected scheduler module fails to completely satisfy said first scheduling request, selecting a subsequent scheduler module according to said predetermined order; receiving a second scheduling request specifying a second amount of resources of said second granularity; at an other selected scheduler module, starting with said last scheduler module of index N, attempting to allocate resources to satisfy said second scheduling request; and where said attempting, at said other scheduler module, fails to completely satisfy said second scheduling request, selecting a preceding scheduler module sequentially following a reverse order towards said first scheduler module.