Technically superior but unloved : a multi-faceted perspective on multi-core's failure to meet expectations in embedded systems

Abstract

A growing number of embedded multi-core processors from several vendors now offer several technical advantages over single-core architectures. However, despite these advantages, adoption of multi-core processors in embedded systems has fallen short of expectations and not increased significantly in the last 3-4 years. There are several technical challenges associated with multi-core adoption that have been well studied and are commonly used to explain slow adoption. This thesis first examines these technical challenges of multi-core adoption from an architectural perspective through the examination of several design scenarios. We first find that the degree of the technical challenge is highly related to the degree of architectural change required at the system level. When the nature of adoption requires higher degrees of architectural change, adoption is most difficult due to the destruction of existing product design and knowledge assets. However, where adopting firms can leverage existing architectural design patterns to minimize architectural change, adoption can be significantly easier. In addition to the architectural challenges, this thesis also explores several other factors that influence adoption related to management strategy, organization, ecosystem, and human cognitive and behavioral tendencies. Finally, this thesis presents a set of heuristics for potential adopters of multi-core technology to assess the suitability and risk of multi-core technology for their firm's products, and a second set of heuristics for supplier firms developing or selling multi-core processors to determine their likely success.