The Transition to Multi-Core: Is Your Software Ready?

Objective

The objective of this seminar is to show you how to migrate to a multi-core processing environment with minimum porting effort while preserving your existing software base.

You will also learn about Bound Multiprocessing (BMP). Pioneered by QNX, BMP uses a single instantiation of the OS to manage all of the processor cores simultaneously while binding each application to a specific core.

Overview

The industry trend toward multi-core processors is rapidly gaining speed. Perhaps the most striking problem in this movement is the challenge of software integration/migration. To date, the majority of existing software has been developed for uniprocessor systems.

To adapt to the multi-core processor environments, software development organizations need a clean migration strategy. They need a strategy that allows the greatest performance improvement from multi-core processing while requiring minimal porting effort. The OS chosen for a multi-core design can significantly reduce, or increase, the effort required to address this problem.

To help software development organizations solve the challenge of migrating to multi-core environments, QNX is introducing Bound Multiprocessing (BMP).

Pioneered by QNX, BMP allows a single OS to manage all processor cores simultaneously while having each application bound to a specific core. BMP offers the ease of use, versatility and performance benefits of symmetric multiprocessing combined with the separation and control of asymmetric multiprocessing.

Speaker Biography:

Robert Craig is a senior software engineer for the OS kernel group at QNX Software Systems. With over 12 years' experience in embedded systems design, Mr. Craig has worked extensively as both a software architect and a development team manager for various data communications companies. Mr. Craig holds a Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science and Physics, and a Doctorate in Physics with a focus on optical computing technologies.