Asymmetric Multiprocessing with Heterogeneous Architectures: Use the Best Core for the Job

By _Arteris Connected Blog

September 25, 2013

Often, the term “multiprocessing” is associated with tightly-coupled symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) architectures, due in large part to SMP’s prevalence in high-performance computing, x86/x64 servers, and PCs. Unfortunately, SMP’s incremental performance scaling for most applications decreases significantly with increasing numbers of cores. This lack of scalability has prompted many processor companies to avoid purely SMP solutions for their mobile and consumer electronics applications. Instead, they have implemented asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP) architectures to make more efficient use of silicon.

An example of AMP is a mobile phone’s modem baseband SoC, containing an ARM processor and a DSP to handle control and signal processing, respectively. AMP architectures are also found in mobile phone application processors, which have multiple CPU cores and separate discrete graphics cores, video cores, audio cores and imaging cores. Heterogeneous architectures also dominate in most embedded consumer applications, such as digital TVs, set-top boxes, and automotive infotainment.

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