Multicore computing--the state of the art

This document presents the current state of the art in multicore computing, in hardware and software, as well as ongoing activities, especially in Sweden. To a large extent, it draws on the presentations given at the Multicore Days 2008 organized by SICS, Swedish Multicore Initiative and Ericsson Software Research but the published literature and the experience of the authors has been equally important sources. It is clear that multicore processors will be with us for the foreseeable future; there seems to be no alternative way to provide substantial increases of microprocessor performance in the coming years. While processors with a few (2–8) cores are common today, this number is projected to grow as we enter the era of manycore computing. The road ahead for multicore and manycore hardware seems relatively clear, although some issues like the organization of the on-chip memory hierarchy remain to be settled. Multicore software is however much less mature, with fundamental questions of programming models, languages, tools and methodologies still outstanding.