IMPRECISE RESULTS: UTILIZING PARTIAL COMPUTATIONS IN REAL-TIME SYSTEMS.

In real-time systems, a computation may not have enough time to complete its execution before its deadline. In such cases, only intermediate, and often imprecise, results will be available. To achieve the maximum resource utilization, it is desirable to use these results if possible. The authors propose two approaches that allow computations to return imprecise results. The milestone approach records intermediate results periodically and returns the latest set when a deadline is reached. The sieve approach skips certain predefined sections of code, thereby trading precision for time. A general model of imprecise computations is presented that takes into account the effects of the environment and shows where the approach fits into the model. The authors also briefly describe the design of the Concord project, which supports imprecise computations.