Introduction

 

Multicore processor gives the functionality of parallel processing with reduced sustainable computation time. In present scenario of multicore, the two main challenges that need to be addressed are: to meet the increased demand of high computing processors and reduced battery power of the processor that helps such systems to be mobile across the globe. These two challenges are counterproductive as if one is addressed the other becomes worsen and vice versa.

Internal Structure

Multicore processors can be defined as a system whose central processing unit is divided into many logical parts called core and each core may have one or more private caches as shown in figure 1. The figure shows four cores having one or more caches and each core is connected via an interconnection network to the memory of the system.

 

The inside view of a single core is shown in figure. The figure  shows a processor with a single core consisting of a private cache L1 and a shared cache L2 . The number of cache levels is decided by how far the main memory is or how many cycles will it take to access the main memory. There are two types of multicore processors- homogeneous and heterogeneous multicore processors. In homogeneous multicore processors all the cores are identical whereas heterogeneous include only non-identical cores.