Multicore Software Development Techniques

Chapter 3

Multicore System Architectures

Abstract

This chapter reviews the different forms of multicore processor architectures. Multicore can be homogeneous or heterogeneous and each has advantages and disadvantages that need to be considered before choosing. Multiple cores includes multiple caches and this chapter also looks at how to manage cache coherency with multiple cores.

Keywords

SMP; AMP; latency; throughput

In this section we will discuss several types of multicore hardware architectures:

• Shared Memory Multicore Systems

• Distributed Memory Multicore Systems

• Hybrid Systems

• Symmetric and Asymmetric Multicore Systems

3.1 Shared Memory Multicore Systems

In a shared memory multicore system, the individual processing units have local ...