Putting The “Heterogeneous” In The HSA Foundation


By Kurt Shuler In last month’s article I explained why symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) architectures have been popular in PC and server markets, and why heterogeneous or asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP) has been the norm in mobility and consumer electronics markets. I also explained the trends that are leading PC and server markets to adopt heterogeneous architectures and introduced the HSA ... » read more

SMP, Asymmetric Multi- processing And The HSA Foundation


When we hear the term “multiprocessing,” we often associate it with “symmetric multiprocessing (SMP).” This is because of SMP’s initial prevalence in the high-performance computing world, and now in x86/x64 servers and PCs. However, it’s been known for years that SMP’s ability to scale performance as the number of cores increases is poor. (For more information on SMP’s inability... » read more