Future of Engineering

Through new research, standards and tools, the industry is just starting to address what's being called a software gap between a rising tide of multicore processors and a lack of parallel programming tools and techniques to make use of them. This gap came into stark focus in the embedded world at the Multicore Expo recently, where chip makers Freescale, Intel and MIPS and a handful of silicon startups sketched out directions for their multicore products. Others warned that the industry has its work cut out for it delivering the software that will harness the next-generation chips.

About 55 percent of embedded system developers surveyed by VDC said they are using or will use multicore processors in the next 12 months. In the PC market, the figures are even more dramatic. About 40 percent of all processors Intel shipped in 2007 used multiple cores, but that will rise to 95 percent in 2011, said Doug Davis, general manager of Intel's embedded group.

But on the software side, vendors reported that only about 6 percent of their tools were ready for parallel chips in 2007, a figure that will only rise to 40 percent in 2011, VDC said.

Full report here

Labels: Computer-Science