Controlling distribution of work for processing of tasks

A technique for controlling the distribution of computer processing task in a multi-thread system encodes each processing task as a task metadata (TMD) that are stored in memory. The TMD contain work distribution parameters which specify how the processing tasks are to be distributed for processing. A circuit for timing selects a task for execution when entries in a work queue for the task have been written. The work distribution parameters may define a number of work queue entries, which is required before a cooperative thread Array ( "CTA") must be started in order to process the work queue entries according to the computing task. The work distribution parameters may define a number of CTAs to be started for processing the same work queue entries. Finally, the work distribution parameters may define a step size that is used to update pointers to the work queue entries.