Methods and systems for scheduling applications on a multi-core processor are disclosed, which may be based on association of processor cores, application execution environments, and authorizations that permits efficient and practical means to utilize the simultaneous execution capabilities provided by multi-core processors. The algorithm may support definition and scheduling of variable associations between cores and applications (i.e., multiple associations can be defined so that the cores an application is scheduled on can vary over time as well as what other applications are also assigned to the same cores as part of an association). The algorithm may include specification and control of scheduling activities, permitting preservation of some execution capabilities of a multi-core processor for future growth, and permitting further evaluation of application requirements against the allocated execution capabilities.