Multi-Core Computing

Mohammad Tarik M Husam shakiar

Multi-Core Computer

 A multi-core processor is a processing

system composed of two or more
independent cores (or CPUs). The cores are
typically integrated onto a single integrated
circuit die (known as a chip multiprocessor
or CMP), or they may be integrated onto
multiple dies in a single chip package.
 Multi-Core Computer
 The amount of performance gained by the use of a
multi-core processor is strongly dependent on the
software algorithms and implementation.
 All cores are identical in symmetric multi-core
systems and they are not identical in asymmetric
multi-core systems. Just as with single-processor
systems, cores in multi-core systems may
implement architectures such as superscalar, vector
processing, or multithreading.
 Moore’s Law

 • Number of transistors on-chip doubles every 18

months
 • Moore’s Law is facing a danger today – Power
consumption is too high when clocked at multi-
GHz frequency and it is proportional to the number
of switching transistors
 • Wire delay doesn’t decrease with transistor size
 Moore’s Law
 Moore’s Law of transistor density is still going
strong, but the clock speed has hit a wall. Now
what do we do?
 Adding more transistors on a single chip, but don’t
increase the clock speed. Instead, we increase
computational throughput by using those transistors
to pack multiple processors onto the same chip.
Symmetric Multi-core Processor(SMP)
 A symmetric multi-core processor is one that has multiple
cores on a single chip, and all of those cores are identical.
▪ Example: Intel Core 2:
▪ The Intel Core 2 is an example of a symmetric multi-
core processor. The Core 2 can have either 2 cores on
chip ("Core 2 Duo") or 4 cores on chip ("Core 2
Quad"). Each core in the Core 2 chip is symmetrical,
and can function independently of one another. It
requires a mixture of scheduling software and hardware
to farm tasks out to each core.
Symmetric Multi-core Processor

All cores which exist in a die are

exactly identical
Performance of Symmetric Multicore
Chips
 Serial Fraction 1-F uses 1 core at rate Perf(r)
 Serial time = (1 – f) / Perf(r)
 Parallel Fraction uses n/r cores at rate Perf(r)
each
 Parallel time =
 f / (Perf(r) * ( n/r )) = f*r / Perf(r)*n
Performance of Symmetric Multicore
Chips
 Single BCE implements the baseline core.
 that architects can expend the resources of r
BCEs to create a powerful core with
sequential performance perf(r).
Performance of Symmetric Multicore
Chips
 Software fraction that is parallelizable (f)
 The total chip resources in BCEs (n)
 BCE resources (r) devoted to increase each core’s
performance.
 The chip uses one core to execute sequentially at
performance perf(r).
 It uses all n/r cores to execute in parallel at
performance perf(r) × n/r.
Example
Symmetric Multi-core Processor
 Applications
 Personal Computers

 Server / Super Computer

Asymmetric Multi-core Processor
 An asymmetric multi-core processor is one that has
multiple cores on a single chip, but those cores might
be different designs. For instance, there could be 2
general purpose cores and 2 vector cores on a single
chip.
▪ Example: Cell Processor:
▪ IBM's Cell processor, used in the Sony PlayStation 3 video
game console is an asymmetrical multi-core processor. The
Cell has 9 processor cores on board, one general purpose
processor, and 8 data-processing cores..
Asymmetric Multi-core Processor
▪ In an asymmetric multi-core processor, the chip
has multiple cores onboard, but the cores might be
different designs.
▪ Each core will have different capabilities.
 Serial Fraction 1-F same, so time = (1 – F) /
Perf(R)
 Parallel Fraction F
 One core at rate Perf(R)
 N-R cores at rate 1
 Parallel time = F / (Perf(R) + N - R)

Asymmetric offers greater speedups potential than Symmetric

As Moore’s Law increases N, Asymmetric gets better
 Asymmetric Multi-core
Processor(ASMP) – Cell Processor
• Applications
 Console Video
Games
Many core processor

 Manycore processors are specialist multi-

core processors designed for a high degree
of parallel processing, containing a large
number of simpler, independent processor
cores (e.g. 10s, 100s, or 1,000s).
References
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-core_(computing)
 Olukotun, Kunle and Hammond, Lance. The future of
microprocessors.Queue, Volume 3, Issue 7, September 2005.
 www.princeton.edu/~jdonald/research/hyperthreading/garg_report.pdf
 Zheltov, Sergey N. and Bratanov, Stanislav V. Multi-threading for Experts:
Synchronization. Technical Report. Intel. 2005. (WWWdocument,
referenced 17.11.2005). Available:
http://www.intel.com/cd/ids/developer/asmo-na/eng/183321.htm
 Parallel Programming:Moore’s Law and Multicore ,Mike Bailey,Oregon
State University
 Amdahl’s Law in the Multicore Era, Mark D. Hill, University of Wisconsin-
Madison, Michael R. Marty, Google