Sequencing to minimize mean finishing time (or mean time in system) is not only desirable to the user, but it also tends to minimize at each point in time the storage required to hold incomplete tasks. In this paper a deterministic model of independent tasks is introduced and new results are derived which extend and generalize the algorithms known for minimizing mean finishing time. In addition to presenting and analyzing new algorithms it is shown that the most general mean-finishing-time problem for independent tasks is polynomial complete, and hence unlikely to admit of a non-enumerative solution.

No abstract

No abstract

The problems of minimizing the expected makespan and minimizing the expected tic for a finite set of independent tasks with exponential service-time distributions on m ~ 2 it processors are considered. It is shown that a scheduling policy minimizes the expected flow timq only if it is shortest expected processing time tint, and that a policy minimizes the expected make and only if it is longest expected processing time fast. rE,,' WORDS ArCD PHRASES: scheduling, flow time, makespan, sequencing, policy C R CATEGORIES: 5.39, 5.42

No abstract