Title: Multiprogramming and the Next Generation of Microprocessors
Abstract: The next generation of multiprocessors in PC’s is currently being designed. The new design will be a departure from previous designs which relied for product upgrades and improvements on being able to increase, with each new generation of processor, the number of switches and gates which could be added to a silicon chip. The problems of heat caused by increasing the electrical activity within circuits of diminishing size has now placed a limit on further miniaturization. So so-called multicore microprocessors will replace single complicated processors with multiple processors which are each conceptually simpler. These multiple processors are intended to run simultaneously and asynchronously and thereby increase computing power while, at the same time, reducing hardware complexity and thus controlling the problem of destructive heat. However, this simultaneity presents enormous problems for the programmer of such devices. The traditional von Neumann Architecture for computer processor design is essentially linear and sequential and so conventional programming techniques have been developed for it. Thus most modern programming languages are not suited to non-sequential applications. Thus the programming of the multicore machine will require new programming methods and solutions to exploit its non-sequential mode of operation. At present these do not exist and a major research effort is currently underway to solve the software problems of asynchronous computing. This paper describes the conventional approaches to multiprocessor computing and outlines the problems and opportunities of a new paradigm for programming a multiprocessing microprocessor working non-sequentially.
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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