Multi-core processors - An overview

Microprocessors have revolutionized the world we live in and continuous efforts are being made to manufacture not only faster chips but also smarter ones. A number of techniques such as data level parallelism, instruction level parallelism and hyper threading (Intel's HT) already exists which have dramatically improved the performance of microprocessor cores. This paper briefs on evolution of multi-core processors followed by introducing the technology and its advantages in today's world. The paper concludes by detailing on the challenges currently faced by multi-core processors and how the industry is trying to address these issues.