Multicore Software Technologies

Abstract

Multicore architectures require parallel computation and explicit management of the memory hierarchy, both of which add programming complexity and are unfamiliar to most programmers. While MPI and OpenMP still have a place in the multicore world, the learning curves are simply too steep for most programmers. New technologies are needed to make multicore processors accessible to a larger community. The signal and image processing community stands to benefit immensely from such technologies. This article provides a survey of new software technologies that hide the complexity of multicore architectures, allowing programmers to focus on algorithms instead of architectures.