Blending Asymmetric and Symmetric Multiprocessing with a Single OS on ARM11 MPCore

ARM11 MPCore is an excellent multicore processor, appropriate for both SMP and AMP. Many embedded system designs already use the AMP model, either on chip or off chips, so unforeseen design challenges are limited for software developers using AMP model with MPCore. On the other hand, the increasingly demanding applications require more and more CPU power, and the utilization of SMP is soon to become a necessity. However, SMP brings new design issues along with its advantages. The first half of this article is dedicated to discussing the issues and pros and cons of AMP/SMP, including throughput, concurrency, real-time determinism, reuse of existing software, programming model, and debug/analysis. The later half introduces eSOL's eT-Kernel Multi-Core Edition RTOS and eBinder tools, and how the issues can be put under control with its unique blending technology.