Chip Multiprocessor: Challenges and Opportunities

Chip Multiprocessors (CMPs) or multicore processors have paved the way for high performance microprocessor architectures. For most applications the CMP outperforms the superscalar architecture by a large margin in terms of performance per unit of power as well as throughput. A lot have to be explored in terms of its implementation to exploiting its numerous possibilities of ever increasing performance while being within power and thermal constraints. The main goal of this survey paper is to shed some light on the challenges facing CMP design and the opportunities that are yet to be explored.