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Multicore

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"Multicore processors offer a solution to the need for mixing new features with legacy code and combining multiple operating environments on the same system. Compared to traditional embedded systems composed of multiple subsystems, a highly integrated system can be constructed with real-time software components and human-directed elements running on separate cores in a single processing system, decreasing system manufacturing and maintenance costs by eliminating redundant hardware." [1]

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Additional Articles
  

An innovative approach to communication processors: Multicore Done Right™

By Jeff Richardson (LSI Corporation)
Asymmetric multicore architectures are needed to achieve wire-speed, deterministic performance at the lowest power and cost.

Nonintrusive visibility into multicore SoCs

By Rick Leatherman (MIPS Technologies)
Developers must choose a processor architecture with a seamless development environment that includes compilers, debuggers, and performance and profiling tools.

More cores, less waiting

By Stephen Lau (Texas Instruments)
Optimizing multicore devices will be one of the biggest challenges facing developers in the future.

04

Multicore progressively powers networking equipment with high-performance software

By Eric Carmes (6WIND)
The Fast Path architecture offers a progressive migration path that enables software reuse and optimizes return on development investment.

New trends in heterogeneous multicore SoCs

By Grant Martin (Tensilica)
Data plane processing units allow designs to be more flexible and optimized than what designers could achieve in the past.

03

Making multicore CPUs work in embedded communications designs

By Jarrod Siket (Netronome Systems)
As network traffic gets more voluminous, diverse, and unpredictable, the solutions that used to work well are being overtaxed. A new heterogeneous multicore architecture comes to the rescue.

'EAL 6+' says it all – or does it? Q&A with Marc Brown, Vice President, VxWorks Product Strategy and Marketing for Wind River Systems

By Military Embedded Systems magazine
Editor's note: To be or not to be … EAL 6+ certified: That is the question. Apologies to William Shakespeare, but you get the point. With EAL 6 (or 6+) certification becoming the latest trend among embedded software vendors, the criteria for achieving such should be fairly straightforward … or is it? Marc Brown, VP over VxWorks Product Strategy and Marketing at Wind River Systems, reveals what he claims are misassumptions about EAL 6+, as the company’s VxWorks MILS Platform 2.0 undergoes NSA/NIAP evaluation for EAL 6+ compliance. He also has a thing or two to say about the company’s recent acquision by Intel, multicore, and a clarified focus for the future. Edited excerpts follow.

01

White Paper: How Multicore Enables the Fast and Efficient Deployment of Multi-OS Systems

By Dan Driscoll and (Mentor Graphics Corporation) and Stephen Olsen (Mentor Graphics Corporation)
This paper discusses how multicore designs are creating the need for a true multi-OS system. Within this discussion Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP), Asymmetric Multi-Processing (AMP), multicore hardware and software, development tools, and actual use cases will be covered.

02

White Paper: Ensuring Quality in Multi-threaded Applications

By Ben Chelf - CTO (Coverity)
Review the most common pitfalls that software developers face when creating multi-threaded applications, and how innovative new software analysis capabilities are emerging that will help development organizations capitalize on the exciting new world of multi-core hardware.

White Paper: File System Considerations in a Multi-Core RTOS Environment

By Ron Driscoll (Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing) and Robert Krantz (Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing)
Multi-core processing is rapidly becoming a necessity in embedded computing with the convergence of two conflicting trends: Demand for high density storage and a requirement for ever smaller footprint. In order to address this demand for increased storage and smaller real estate, manufacturers are turning to MLC NAND in droves. Some consumers refuse to pay the penalty in performance that often accompanies the complex error correction required for MLC's multi-bit architecture. With multi-core configurations consisting of dual core CPUs that share all local board resources, embedded single board computers are able to offset this performance hit. Another advantage of this configuration is that an extra CPU is supplied without duplicating any of the peripheral hardware. These cores often share main memory, Flash memory, busses/interconnects, bridges, and endpoint devices. Since Flash memory banks are available with large storage capacity, using Flash to store a file system has become increasingly popular with embedded software to log large amounts of data or store complete sets of maps, etc. For software, the question becomes; How can you divide ownership and control access to devices and avoid the undesired effects of dual simultaneous access?

01

White Paper: In-Memory Database Systems (IMDSs): Pushing Past the Terabyte-Plus Boundary

By Steven Graves (McObject)
The in-memory database system (IMDS), a type of database management system (DBMS) software used in high performance applications including data analytics, securities trading, telecommunications, real-time military/aerospace, embedded systems, and science and engineering applications is able to leverage the multi-core architectures becoming common in companies, university research labs, and government.

Green in: SoC hibernates, multicore sleeps deep, and kit manages power programmably

By Don Dingee
In our Deep Green Editor's Choice section, we look at technology helping design green into today's new products.

COTS vendors step up to new multicore processors

By Duncan Young (Contributor)
Multicore devices have been on the market awhile, but they are not yet widely used in real-time embedded applications. However, the desire for improved performance with less power in a smaller package is driving new multicore device designs.

Allowing for GPOS and RTOS: The unique virtualization needs of mission-critical embedded systems

By Chris Main (TenAsys Corp.)
When hosting multiple heterogenous OSs on one processor chip simultaneously, virtualization is key. Meanwhile, mission-critical virtualization melds RTOSs and GPOSs – and might fold in some legacy applications too.

04

Network I/O virtualization (IOV): Key addition to PCIe in multicore designs

By Rolf Neugebauer (Netronome Systems, Inc.) and Nabil Damouny (Netronome Systems, Inc.)
Virtualizing the I/O subsystem can lead to lower Total Cost of Ownership.

01

White Paper: Multicore Challenges and Choices: Deciding Which Solution is Right for You

By Tomas Evensen, Chief Technology Officer (Wind River Systems, Inc.)
There are a number of technology and business trends that will change the way many devices are architected and developed in the future. They include the frequency ceiling; using multicore for hardware offload; consolidation of multiprocessor systems to multicore; hypervisor adoption in the embedded market; and use cases to help achieve performance objectives, convergence with more functionality in any given device, or higher security and safety concerns leading to certified systems.

01

Intelligently architecting the workload to take advantage of multicore (and other answers)

By Joe Pavlat (Editorial Director) and Jim St. Leger (Intel)
Strategies must change as the gigahertz race becomes a thing of the past.

01

White Paper: Heterogeneous Processing Platform FPGA Solutions for the IBM BladeCenter

By Jane Donaldson (Annapolis Micro Systems, Inc.)
Faster processing. Better application performance. Do more work and do harder work. Do the work better and do the work faster. Use less power. Take up less space. Pay less to buy, pay less to program, and pay less to operate. These are the criteria for a successful high performance computing platform.

The secret to improving multicore performance: Data flow and cache analysis

By Doug Sandy (Emerson Network Power Embedded Computing)
Software developers can alleviate the frustration that results when multicore algorithm multithreading yields performance only barely superior to single core. How? By implementing data flow and cache usage analysis facilitated by using a cache analysis software library.

01

White Paper: Multicore Is Key to Innovation in Medical Applications

By Jens Wiegand (Wind River Systems, Inc.)
The world of medical electronics is shifting fundamentally. The combination of multicore hardware, operating systems specialized for device certification, hypervisor software, and a consolidated but open development toolchain are key to providing the support medical system designers need.

Top 5 technologies for the warfighter

By Chris A. Ciufo (Editor)
SFFs ... multicore ... secure RTOSs: You probably could guess these would make our Top 5 warfighter technologies list. But some of the others just might surprise you.

Software tuned for multi-core promises big gains in AdvancedTCA system performance

By Curt Schwaderer (Technology Editor)
What happens when networking and high availability software solutions come into multicore’s sphere of influence?

01

Trends are good for press, not necessarily for sockets

By Jean J. Labrosse (Micrium)
Designers must make sure that design needs are met before chasing after the next best thing.

Migrating legacy applications to multicore: Not as scary as it sounds

By Bill Graham (QNX Software Systems)
Legacy migration to multicore comes with its fair share of challenges, but they can be mitigated successfully when developers divide and conquer, then leverage the right tools for the job.

01

MicroTCA's role expands in modern battlefields

By David Pursley (Kontron)
MicroTCA – with its ruggedness and small form factor, high availability, and multicore support – is proving itself a viable contender against CompactPCI, VME, and even the up-and-coming VPX.

01

White Paper: Applying Multicore and Virtualization to Industrial and Safety-Related Applications

Wind River Systems, Inc.
Multi-core and virtualization provide the opportunity to improve device performance, reduce costs through hardware consolidation and upgrade applications more cost effectively throughout the product lifecycle.

01

White Paper: Freescale’s Embedded Hypervisor for QorIQ™ P4 Series Communications Platform

Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.
To realize the full potential of multicore systems, many usage scenarios require using multiple secure computing domains, often managed by different operating systems, on the same physical device. This can be accomplished by dividing the cores, memory and I/O devices of a system into secure, logical partitions. The partitions need to operate independently of each other, and operating systems must be able to access and manage the hardware resources belonging to the partition with little or no overhead.

Executive outlook: What's hot in 2009

OpenSystems Media
Industry execs offer insight into where they think the embedded market is headed next year.

Multicore processors: Providing opportunities for embedded systems designers

By Paul Fischer (TenAsys)
A highly integrated system can be constructed with real-time software components and human-directed elements running on separate cores in a single processing system.

Virtualization software addresses new demand for MicroTCA in industrial applications

By Didier Irlande (VirtualLogix)
Industrial, medical, and other applications can employ virtualization to take advantage of MicroTCA systems and migrate software to new multicore architectures such as the Intel Core Microarchitecture.

Multicore vs. multiprocessing vs. multicore multiprocessing

By Ray Alderman (VITA)
Some think multicore and multiprocessing are the same, but not so, according to VITA's exec director Ray Alderman. Multiprocessing architectures such as Tightly Coupled/Shared-Everything (TCSE), Snugly Coupled/Shared-Something (SCSS), and Loosely Coupled/Shared-Nothing (LCSN) are explained, along with how heterogenous and homogenous multicore fit into the picture.

Bringing multicore computing to VME

By Doug Sandy (Emerson Network Power)
Is multicore a viable choice for VME systems? Maybe, but elements such as migration type, AMP vs. SMP configurations, and performance must all be factored into the equation.

Tightly coupling FPGAs with x86 processors

By Peter Carlston (Intel, Inc.) and Geno Valente (XtremeData, Inc.)
This article highlights the benefits of Acceleration Abstraction Layers and discusses how military systems designers can now leverage a new class of COTS board and accelerator modules to solve some of their most demanding tasks.

Switching at the speed of light

By Curt Schwaderer (OSP)
Solutions that address the problem of added latency between participating nodes in a traditional interconnect scheme are appearing to aid multimedia.

01

Real-time image compositing: Software displaces hardware for radar displays

By Dr. David G. Johnson (Cambridge Pixel)
The fusion of high-performance graphics chips and multicore computing platforms is yielding lower costs, enhanced performance, and easier maintenance via common hardware components in real-time radar video display applications.

Virtualization yields hardware optimization and new embedded architectures

By Chris A. Ciufo (Editor)
Desktop and enterprise virtualization, turbocharged by multicore processors, will fundamentally change the way high-performance embedded systems are architected. Many vendors just don’t know it yet.

Daily Briefing: News Snippets

By Sharon Schnakenburg (Associate Editor)
A report on the latest military and aerospace technology news and trends.

White Paper: Virtualization: Requirements

By SCOPE Alliance (Nereus with SCOPE Alliance)
This document presents virtualization requirements that have been identified by the SCOPE Alliance Virtualization Working Group as being necessary for the NEPs/TEMs networking/telecommunications systems. These virtualization requirements are associated with the use cases from which they were derived and have been aggregated into categories.

White Paper: Virtualization: State of the Art

By SCOPE Alliance (Nereus with SCOPE Alliance)
This document presents the state-of-the-art of virtualization as a foundation for further work of the SCOPE Alliance Virtualization Working Group. It also provides a glossary of virtualization terminology that will be used in further work of the SCOPE Alliance Virtualization Working Group.

White Paper: Virtualization: Use Cases

By SCOPE Alliance (Nereus with SCOPE Alliance)
The SCOPE Alliance Virtualization Working Group aims to provide a set of hardware and software requirements that describe functional and non-functional aspects of virtualization features required by the NEPs.

 

Multicore Video

Vendors and Products
 

Themis Computer Themis Multicore Boards
Kontron AM4010 and AM4100
Real-Time Systems GmbH RTS Hypervisor
MIPS Technologies MIPS32R 1004KT
Lanner Electronics, Inc. MR-550
CSP Inc. (CSPI) MultiComputer Division 3000 SERIES
WIN Enterprises Inc. MB-06063
CSP Inc. (CSPI) MultiComputer Division VXS-M16
Kontron AM4010 & AM4100
VadaTech Inc. AMC220
GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, Inc. PPC9A
JumpGen Systems T6M-100 PrAMC
Emerson Network Power Embedded Computing MVME4100 VMEbus SBC
6WIND 6WINDPath
Emerson Network Power Embedded Computing CPCI7200 CompactPCI dual core processor board
Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. Ensemble HCD5220
Enea Embedded Technology OSE RTOS
Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. Ensemble 3000 Series 3U VPX System
SingMai Electronics PT8 IP Core
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03/17/10 06:27

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This page was last modified on 2 March 2010, at 19:51. - Disclaimers - About Embedded Channels