Content deleted Content added
Guy Harris (talk | contribs) Mark a dead link as such. |
Guy Harris (talk | contribs) →Advantages: Mark a dead link as such. |
||
Line 62:
Assuming that the die can physically fit into the package, multi-core CPU designs require much less [[printed circuit board]] (PCB) space than do multi-chip [[symmetric multiprocessing|SMP]] designs. Also, a dual-core processor uses slightly less power than two coupled single-core processors, principally because of the decreased power required to drive signals external to the chip. Furthermore, the cores share some circuitry, like the L2 cache and the interface to the [[front-side bus]] (FSB). In terms of competing technologies for the available silicon die area, multi-core design can make use of proven CPU core library designs and produce a product with lower risk of design error than devising a new wider-core design. Also, adding more cache suffers from diminishing returns.
Multi-core chips also allow higher performance at lower energy. This can be a big factor in mobile devices that operate on batteries. Since each core in a multi-core CPU is generally more energy-efficient, the chip becomes more efficient than having a single large monolithic core. This allows higher performance with less energy. A challenge in this, however, is the additional overhead of writing parallel code.<ref>{{cite web|title=Q & A: Do multicores save energy? Not really.|url=http://www.futurechips.org/chip-design-for-all/a-multicore-save-energy.html|last=Suleman|first=Aater|date=May 19, 2011|access-date=March 6, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121216051010/http://www.futurechips.org/chip-design-for-all/a-multicore-save-energy.html|archive-date=December 16, 2012}}</ref>
===Disadvantages===
| |||