Embedded designs incorporating several CPUs - either multiple cores on a chip, multiple chips on a board, or a combination of the two - are becoming increasingly common. It's no secret that software development for multicore systems has its challenges, but fortunately, the industry is working towards sorting out the key issues.

1. Interprocessor
Communications
and MCAPI
Colin Walls
colin_walls@mentor.com
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2. Agenda
Multicore introduction
MCAPI introduction
MCAPI concepts
MCAPI API
MCAPI implementation
Conclusions
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3. Agenda
Multicore introduction
MCAPI introduction
MCAPI concepts
MCAPI API
MCAPI implementation
Conclusions
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4. Embedded Multicore
 Designs using multiple cores are becoming
common
– multiple cores on a chip
– multiple chips on a board
– any combination
 Two hardware architectures:
– homogenous – multiple identical cores
– heterogeneous – multiple cores of different types
 Broadly two software architectures:
– SMP – Symmetrical MultiProcessing
– AMP – Asymmetrical MultiProcessing
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5. Symmetrical Multiprocessing - SMP
 Single OS instance
Application
Thread M
Thread 1
running on
homogenous cores
Nucleus Middleware
Nucleus SMP
Core N
Core 1
Multicore Processor
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6. Asymmetrical Multiprocessing - AMP
 Multiple OS
Application 1
Application 2
Thread m
Thread 1
Thread M
Thread 1
instances running on
heterogeneous or
homogenous cores
Android
Middleware
Linux
MCAPI
Nucleus
Core N
Core 1
Multicore Processor
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7. Multicore Architectures
Heterogeneous
Homogeneous
AMP
SMP
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8. Current Multicore Processors
 Heterogeneous devices
– OMAP2 – ARM + DSP
– OMAP3 – ARM + DSP + Accelerators
– OMAP4 – (ARM x 2) + DSP + Accelerators
 Homogeneous devices
– Marvell – ARM x 2
– ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore – ARM x 4
– Freescale QorIQ – PPC x 8
– MIPS 1004K – MIPS32 x 4
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9. Mentor Embedded
 To view the rest of this free presentation, including
MCAPI concepts, API and implementation, visit
Mentor Embedded.
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