Multiprocessor system on a chip

A multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC, /ˌɛmˌpiːˈsɒk/ em-pee-SOCK or /ˌɛmˌpiːˌɛsˌoʊˈsiː/ em-PEE-ess-oh-SEE) is a system-on-a-chip (SoC) which includes multiple microprocessors. As such, it is a multi-core System-on-Chip.

MPSoCs usually targeted for embedded applications. It is used by platforms that contain multiple, usually heterogeneous, processing elements with specific functionalities reflecting the need of the expected application domain, a memory hierarchy (often using scratchpad RAM and DMA) and I/O components. All these components are linked to each other by an on-chip interconnect. These architectures meet the performance needs of multimedia applications, telecommunication architectures, network security and other application domains while limiting the power consumption through the use of specialised processing elements and architecture.

Benchmarks

MPSoC research and development often compares many options. Benchmarks, such as COSMIC, are developed to help such evaluations.

Examples

• CELL processor
• Adapteva's Epiphany architecture
• Raspberry Pi 2 and later

See also

• Multi-core processor
• System on a chip, of which an MPSoC is a subtype.
• manycore
• Multiprocessing
• Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP)
• multitasking
• Parallel computing
• Vision Processing Unit
• PSoC

External links

• MPSoC - Annual Conference on MPSoC
• Annual Symposium