Multicore Processor Jia Yao ECE Dep Auburn University

Multi-core Processor Jia Yao ECE Dep. Auburn University

What is a multi-core processor ? n n n A processing system composed of two or more independent cores, which facilitates simultaneous managing of activities. CPU 1 and CPU 2 and Dual-core and L 1 Cache quad-core processor High performance L 2 Cache without driving up power consumption Main Memory Dual-core Architecture

Multi-core processor history n n Motivated by increasing operating frequency, which leads to increasing gap between processor and memory speeds, larger cache, higher power consumption. The world’s first multi-core processor is “Power 4” released by IBM in 2001. IBM Power 4, Power 5, Power 6, Power. PC AMD Athlon, Opteron, Phenom Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Xeon Nvidia Geforce 9, Geforce 200 Sun microsystem MARJC, Ultra. SPARC

Advantages ? CPU 1 CPU 2 Single-core Dual-core Large tasks running simultaneously slow down Large tasks can be processed in separate CPUs

n n How does multi-core processor work? Significant improvement CPU 1 and CPU 2 and on cache (bus) snooping L 1 Cache Signals between different L 2 Cache CPUs travel shorter distance, which allows Main more date sent in one Memory period, less signal degradation, does not 1 + 1 = 2? need to sent data Not exactly, 1+1=1. 5 repeatedly as often

Future Development n n Low Power Design power consumption doubles with each doubling of operating frequency Software support Such like more intelligent compiler which is capable of sending balanced load of instructions to individual cores.

Reference n n n [1] http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Multi-core [2]http: //www. dell. com/downloads/global/power/ps 2 q 0 5 -20050103 -Fruehe. pdf [3]http: //multicore. amd. com/Resources/33211 A_Multi. Core_WP_en. pdf [4] http: //www. intel. com/multi-core [5] http: //www. bitpipe. com/tlist/Multi-core-Processor. Architecture. html