Real World Multicore Embedded Systems: Chapter 3. Multicore Architectures

This chapter will introduce the concepts of multicore related issues, while the subsequent chapters will go into further details. We will start with a general analysis of how electronic design trends lead to multicore hardware-software architectures as the only viable solution addressing consumer requirements on cost, performance and power. We will then categorize multicore architecture concepts by processing and communication requirements and show how different processing techniques combine to form multicore architectures that address the specific needs of different application domains. Special attention will be given to the programmability of the different hardware architectures and the impact that hardware has on software. We will close the chapter with a brief review of existing hardware architectures available on the market, as well as a brief discussion about programming models capable of expressing parallel functionality, which can then be mapped into multiple processor cores.