I couldn't resist. I posted a little update that causes a massive improvement in performance. It _may_ bring back the starvation in a milder form but the gains are worth it for those using this scheduler now. Patches against mainline stair5 and -ck2 are available.

http://ck.kolivas.org/patches/2.6/2.6.4/experimental/staircase/
http://ck.kolivas.org/patches/2.6/2.6.4/2.6.4-ck2/experimental/