Multi-core chips make the software world both miserable and happy

The fundamental change in the design of new generation processors not only brings a multitude of difficult challenges for the software development community, but it also comes with huge money-making opportunities.

Gone are the days when chip companies raced to release the fastest, smallest processors. Instead, in order to save power and reduce heat output, they switched to designing multi-core chips.

Suffering because of lagging

Although the speed is slower, the multi-core chip is more efficient in terms of performance and power saving. It allows the computer to perform multiple tasks simultaneously and smoothly.

And in particular, multi-core chip technology is especially ideal for multimedia tasks, such as handling large video files, retrieving information from multiple databases at the same time or playing games, and downloading music, just burned the CD.

The problem is that not many software applications are written to take advantage of multi-core chips. The rapid development of hardware can push the software to a place that lags behind.

" Imagine a scenario, when users can't buy new computers and laptops just because there's no compatible software ," said David Patterson, professor of computer science at the University of California.

In the old days, when microprocessors were racing at the same speed, software developers only had to improve so that their program ran "deadly". But now that chip makers no longer focus on speed factor alone, programmers are forced to change tactics and learn to order multiple chip cores at the same time.

The latest products from Intel and AMD are two or four core processors. More core chip plans have been outlined for the future. Intel even demonstrated an 80-core model chip, so complex that no operating system was smart enough to work with it.

The company's supercomputer and data center have been using multi-core chips for years, accompanied by software written specifically for them (which allows processing multiple Web search commands at the same time). It is this fact that inspired chip makers to bring multi-core chips to the mass market.

Must change thinking

Source: ZDNet European evolution is also indispensable, only personal computer software has not caught up with that mindset.

The gap between hardware and software is not a big problem for consumers, because operating systems like Windows XP and Vista are still compatible with current multi-core chips. Basic applications such as word processing and email do not need a software major.

But the consequences in the future are clearly missed. Experts warn that the software will become powerless when the 8-core chip becomes available on the market. " Current software is not designed to promote the superiority of many such cores, " Patterson said.

The software industry and research institutes are working hard to prevent this scenario from happening: the processing power is boundless but lies still, not knocking on the door. However, this task is not easy.

This task requires more than "inventing a new programming language," said Mark Lewin, programming director for Microsoft Research.

" It will have to think, will have to brainwash, will have to think of a completely new way of software development. But the opportunity is truly huge, " Lewin said. Microsoft has just suspended a grand prize of $ 500,000 for university students to propose the best software development solution for multi-core computing.

In a speech in May, Craig Mundie, Microsoft's director of research and strategy, has revealed that its experts have spent the last five years developing so-called "parallel computing", ie is to perform multiple tasks at the same time on multi-core processors.

Who needs multi cores?

Jerry Bautista, chief technology officer of Intel Microprocessor Laboratory, said the usefulness of multicore computers is easy to spot on Wall Street, where investors need to perform complex calculations in time. as fast as possible.

" They don't want to have results until the next morning. They want to see it right away to make a quick decision ."

Similarly, multi-core processors can also be used in consumer electronics, where users have a very high demand for tasks such as playing high-end graphics games and wireless video streaming.

Of course, applications like Word or email don't need multicore computing, because even if they run on quad-core computers, you don't notice anything different.

However, with areas such as advanced computing, facial recognition and pattern software, or search programs for meta-databases, multi-core computing is promising.

Trong Cam