Designing SOCs with Configured Cores

1.12. Veering Away from Processor Multitasking in SOC Design

The contemporary design trend toward increasing the number of on-chip processor cores is a significant counter trend to decades-old multitasking. Where multitasking loads multiple tasks onto one processor—which increases software complexity, forces processor clock rates up, and therefore increases processor power dissipation—use of multiple on-chip processors takes system design in a different direction by reducing the number of tasks each processor must execute. This design style simplifies the software by reducing the possibility of intertask interference, cutting software overhead (it takes extra processor cycles to just schedule and track multiple software tasks), and thus moderating ...