IMPROVING PERFOR MANCE & POWER IN MULTI-CORE PROCESSORS
S. Kishore Reddy, Syed Musthak Ahmed, Krithika Manohar · 2013
Multi-core processor architecture entails silicon design engineers placing two or more processor-based execution cores, or computational engines, within a single processor. A multi-core processor plugs directly into a single processor socket, but the operating system perceives each of its execution cores as a discrete logical processor, with all the associated execution resources. A processor equipped with thread-level parallelism can execute completely separate threads of code. This can mean one thread running from an application and a second thread running from an operating system, or parallel threads running from within a single application. Multimedia applications are especially conducive to thread-level parallelism because many of their operations can run in parallel. Although faster processors are one way to improve server performance, other approaches can help boost performance without increasing clock speed and incurring an increase in power consumption and heat. Multi-core processing continues to exert a significant impact on software evolution. Before the advent of multi-core processor technology, both SMP systems and HT Technology motivated many OS and application vendors to design software that could take advantage of multithreading capabilities. As multi core processor–based systems enter the mainstream and evolve, it is likely that OS and application vendors will optimize their offerings for multi-core architectures, resulting in potential performance increases over time through enhanced software efficiency. In a technical nutshell, multi-core processing can support several key capabilities that will enhance the user experience, including the number of PC tasks a user can do at one time, do multiple bandwidth-intensive