Multiprocessor Systems-on-Chips

5.4. Toward Multiple-Processor SoCs

Although individual tasks and individual processors are important components in SoC solutions, the larger questions of system applications and SoC architecture are increasingly important. The aggregate complexity of SoC designs, particularly as the development cost grows into tens of millions of dollars and total gate counts reach toward 100 million gates, creates demand for faster initial design and greater post-fabrication flexibility. Broader use of processors as a basic building block for SoCs could address these demands. Two trends are working together to increase the number of processors used on a typical SoC:

1. The combining of functions traditionally implemented with discrete control processors and DSPs ...