Multicore: The View from Europe

......As guest editors, we are extremely honored to introduce the IEEE Micro special issue on European multicore computing projects. In 2004, the European Commission funded the HiPEAC Network of Excellence as an instrument to overcome the research landscape fragmentation in the fields of computer architecture and compilation in Europe. In response to the paradigm shift to multicore-based computers, the European Commission has also invested in several collaborative research projects that investigate a wide range of topics aimed at advancing the state of the art in multicore computing, most of which are defined in the context of the HiPEAC network. Many of these projects are in their final phases or successfully completed. This special issue seeks to provide a rather representative snapshot of the innovations that have taken place in these projects. We anticipated the challenge of addressing projects that had to be performed under collaboration by multiple partners, usually from research institutions and companies located in different European countries and recognized as such by the European Union.