[PATCH] Stairacse scheduler v6.E for 2.6.7-rc3

[Con Kolivas <kernel@kolivas.org>]

Here is an updated version of the staircase scheduler. I've been trying to hold
off for 2.6.7 final but this has not been announced yet. Here is a brief update
summary.

http://ck.kolivas.org/patches/2.6/2.6.7-rc3/patch-2.6.7-rc3-s6.E


Changes:

A lot more code from the original scheduler not required by staircase has been
removed (610 deletions, 223 additions).

The "compute" mode now also includes cache trash minimisation by introducing
delayed preemption. A task of higher priority will force a reschedule after a
task has run a minimum of cache_decay_ticks. This increases the latency
slightly but optimises cpu cache utilisation.

The yield() implementation was fixed to ensure it yielded to all other tasks.

Tiny cleanups elsewhere.


Stability of this version has been confirmed in a number of different settings
for days.

Testing, comments welcome.
Con