Project Goals

This page introduces the design philosophy, development objectives, and future vision of the Gthulhu and SCX GoLand Core projects.

Project Vision

Core Mission

Making Linux schedulers smarter, more efficient, and better adapted to modern application requirements

With the proliferation of cloud-native applications, containerized deployments, and microservice architectures, traditional schedulers can no longer fully meet the diverse needs of modern workloads. The Gthulhu project is committed to:

• 🎯 Providing Low-Latency Scheduling: Better responsiveness for interactive applications and real-time systems
• 🚀 Optimizing Cloud-Native Environments: Designed specifically for containerized and microservice environments
• 🔧 Supporting Extensible Architecture: Enabling developers to easily customize scheduling policies
• 📊 Data-Driven Approach: Continuously optimizing scheduling decisions using actual runtime data

Design Principles

1. Performance First

graph LR
    A[Low Latency] --> B[High Throughput]
    B --> C[Energy Efficiency]
    C --> D[Scalability]
    D --> A

    style A fill:#e1f5fe
    style B fill:#f3e5f5
    style C fill:#e8f5e8
    style D fill:#fff3e0

• Microsecond-Level Scheduling Latency: Target scheduling decision time at microsecond level
• Minimize Context Switch Overhead: Reduce unnecessary context switches through intelligent task allocation
• Zero-Copy Data Transfer: Avoid data copying whenever possible

2. Adaptive Design

Design Features:
  Dynamic Adjustment: Automatically adjust scheduling parameters based on system load
  Learning Capability: Learn optimal scheduling patterns from historical data
  Environment Awareness: Automatically identify different application scenarios and workloads
  Flexible Configuration: Support runtime parameter adjustment without system restart

3. Developer Friendly

• Clear API Design: Provide concise and intuitive programming interfaces
• Rich Debugging Tools: Built-in detailed monitoring and debugging capabilities
• Complete Documentation: Comprehensive documentation from beginner to advanced
• Active Community Support: Build an open and friendly developer community

Target Application Scenarios

🎮 Interactive Applications

Goal: Provide smooth user experience

• Desktop Environments: Ensure GUI application responsiveness
• Gaming: Reduce input latency, provide stable frame rates
• Multimedia: Optimize audio/video playback experience

graph TB
    A[User Input] --> B[Scheduler Recognition]
    B --> C[Priority Boost]
    C --> D[Fast Response]
    D --> E[Smooth Experience]

☁️ Cloud-Native Environments

Goal: Optimize containerized workloads

• Microservices: Improve inter-service communication latency
• Container Scheduling: Increase container startup speed
• Resource Utilization: Maximize hardware resource efficiency

Cloud-Native Optimization:
  Container Awareness: Understanding container boundaries and resource limits
  Service Discovery: Optimize inter-service network communication
  Elastic Scaling: Support dynamic resource allocation
  Multi-Tenancy: Ensure fairness and isolation between tenants

🔬 High-Performance Computing

Goal: Provide maximum computational throughput

• Scientific Computing: Optimize CPU-intensive tasks
• Data Analytics: Improve big data processing efficiency
• Machine Learning: Accelerate AI/ML workloads

Technical Objectives

Short-Term Goals (6-12 months)

1. Stability Improvements
2. [ ] Complete basic functionality testing
3. [ ] Fix known stability issues

4. [ ] Establish automated testing pipeline

5. Performance Optimization

6. [ ] Reduce scheduling latency to < 10μs
7. [ ] Reduce context switch overhead by 20%

8. [ ] Optimize memory usage

9. Feature Completion

10. [ ] Complete CPU topology support
11. [ ] NUMA-aware scheduling
12. [ ] Real-time task support

Medium-Term Goals (1-2 years)

1. Intelligent Scheduling
2. [ ] Machine learning assisted decision making
3. [ ] Predictive task allocation

4. [ ] Self-adaptive parameter adjustment

5. Ecosystem Integration

6. [ ] Native Kubernetes support
7. [ ] Deep Docker integration

8. [ ] Inclusion in major distributions

9. Monitoring and Observability

10. [ ] Detailed performance metrics
11. [ ] Visual monitoring dashboard
12. [ ] Problem diagnosis tools

Long-Term Goals (2-5 years)

1. Industry Adoption
2. [ ] Enterprise product integration
3. [ ] Cloud service provider adoption

4. [ ] Standard specification development

5. Technical Innovation

6. [ ] Quantum computing scheduling support
7. [ ] Edge computing optimization
8. [ ] Heterogeneous computing platform support

Performance Metrics and Benchmarks

Benchmark Test Scenarios

# Latency testing
cyclictest -t 8 -p 99 -i 1000 -d 0

# Throughput testing
sysbench cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 run

# Interactivity testing
hackbench -p -l 100

# Mixed workload testing
stress-ng --cpu 4 --io 2 --vm 2 --timeout 300s

Community Development Goals

Developer Community

Goal: Build an active and diverse developer community

• Core Contributors: Cultivate 10+ core developers
• Community Contributions: Attract 100+ community contributors
• Enterprise Participation: Gain technical support from 5+ enterprises

Ecosystem Building

graph TB
    A[Core Project] --> B[Tool Ecosystem]
    A --> C[Documentation Resources]
    A --> D[Training Courses]

    B --> B1[Monitoring Tools]
    B --> B2[Debugging Tools]
    B --> B3[Performance Analysis]

    C --> C1[Technical Documentation]
    C --> C2[Best Practices]
    C --> C3[Case Studies]

    D --> D1[Getting Started Tutorials]
    D --> D2[Advanced Courses]
    D --> D3[Certification System]

Knowledge Sharing

• Technical Blog: Regularly publish technical articles and case analyses
• Conference Presentations: Participate in international conferences to share technical achievements
• Workshops: Host technical workshops and training activities
• Open Source Collaboration: Establish partnerships with other open source projects

Sustainable Development

Technical Sustainability

1. Code Quality: Continuously improve code quality and test coverage
2. Documentation Maintenance: Keep documentation timely and complete
3. Compatibility: Ensure backward compatibility and smooth upgrade paths
4. Security: Regular security audits and vulnerability patching

Community Sustainability

1. Governance Structure: Establish transparent and democratic project governance mechanisms
2. Diversity: Promote community diversity and inclusivity
3. Mentorship Program: Establish mentorship system for newcomers to cultivate next-generation developers
4. Business Model: Explore sustainable commercial support models

Success Indicators

Technical Success Indicators

• ✅ Stability: Stable operation in production environments > 99.9%
• ✅ Performance: Significant performance improvement compared to CFS
• ✅ Adoption Rate: Adopted by major distributions
• ✅ Community Activity: GitHub Stars > 1000, Contributors > 50

Business Success Indicators

• 💼 Enterprise Adoption: 10+ enterprises using in production environments
• 💼 Cloud Service Integration: Support from major cloud service providers
• 💼 Standardization: Become part of industry standards

Risk Assessment and Mitigation

Technical Risks

Market Risks

• Increased Competition: Maintain competitive advantage through continuous technical innovation
• Changing Requirements: Flexibly adjust development direction to stay close to user needs
• Technological Disruption: Monitor emerging technologies and adapt to changes promptly