Designing SOCs with Configured Cores

1.10. Heterogeneous- and Homogeneous-Processor System-Design Approaches

Figure 1.15 shows the use of two different microprocessor cores, one general-purpose processor and one DSP. Such a system is called a heterogeneous-multiprocessor system. A heterogeneous-multiprocessor design approach has the advantage of matching processor cores with application-appropriate features to specific on-chip tasks.

Selecting just the right processor core or tailoring the processor core to a specific task has many benefits. First, the processor need have no more abilities than required by its assigned task set. This characteristic of heterogeneous-multiprocessor system design minimizes processor gate counts by trimming unneeded features from each processor.

One ...