Is there really a multicore system crisis?

We’ve all seen it before – a perfect storm of forces can change the paradigm of an industry. We’ve witnessed this happen in the computer segment when the move toward distributed network computing arrived, and the old dinosaurs of the business that did mainframes were wiped out. We’ve also seen this in the entire electronics industry with the worldwide move toward the development of clean technologies and implementation of eco-compliance.



And now, a familiar storm that would lead to more rapid changes is in the IT horizon. The emergence of multicore processing (or the ability to place many general-purpose or specialized processors on a single socket) may be one of most important developments to impact the computer/IT industry. Ranging from portable and desktop computers to petascale supercomputers, multicore computer systems are placing new demands on computer software, and are catalyzing a reexamination of the fundamental methods of computer programming.

SOFTWARE ISSUE

There has been plenty of talk in the industry of late debating whether or not our current programming languages are useless when running on multicore CPU architectures. Software, some technology pundits say, is struggling to keep up with the hardware innovations.



The fearful are declaring that we are now in a middle of a multicore crisis, and we are going to need massive parallelization pretty soon. On the other hand, others are saying that we have plenty of time to get ready, and that the entire hubbub today is just hype and hand wringing. There are pretty good rebuttals for both arguments, but I’m leaning toward the push for parallel approach to software – regardless that we are going to be okay for the near term.



GOING PARALLEL

Just a few months ago I talked to Dr. James Truchard, CEO, and Michael Schneider, instrument product manager, National Instruments, regarding the importance of parallel programming to achieve the maximum potential of multicore processor systems.



In the words of Dr. Truchard, “The rules in the PC industry have changed. Up till now, all we have to do is buy a new PC and we will be a lot faster. That’s no longer true. You have to possess software that can take advantage of the multi-core PC so it can be faster.”



Right now, CPU technology is ahead of software and the industry needs to advance to catch up to the hardware. Many developers and engineers are already working on it, but change may take some time. No need to panic, it will happen gradually. Meantime, let’s celebrate the milestone that is multicore processing.