A User-Oriented Priority Scheme for a Time-Sharing System

摘要

Time-sharing systems have yielded large payoffs in computer program production by providing fast turnaround and interactive debugging. Corporations or institutes that install time-sharing systems will find that their systems will soon be saturated with users. Until the system capacity is expanded, by means of hardware or software changes, it may be desirable to implement a priority system that will facilitate work on critical projects and insure the meeting of deadlines. This paper discusses the criteria for a time-sharing priority scheme and presents some techniques for superimposing a priority scheme upon a typical timesharing configuration. The scheme has three primary priorities: HIGH, LOW, and NO. Users are allocated budgets of HIGH and LOW priority time for the succeeding month based upon their current forecast and previous usage. All users are given unlimited NO priority time. The salient feature of the scheme is that the users determine when and at which priority they will operate. Some examples of the budget allocation process are included. (Author)