The end of Moore's Law and its impact on devices

The end of Moore's Law and its impact on devices

The end of an era is approaching. For over 30 years the technology industry has relied on exponential improvements in microprocessor technology, described by Moore’s Law, to deliver ever-increasing computing power at an ever-decreasing size and cost. However, chip makers have reached a plateau, preventing additional jumps in performance using existing techniques. In addition, consumers are demanding increasingly sophisticated high-end devices with advanced multimedia capability without degrading battery life. The solution to this problem is the adoption of new processors that use symmetric multi-processing (SMP). SMP processors use multiple CPUs within a single chip to deliver extra horsepower. However, there is a cost to this new approach: it increases the complexity of software development, which in turn will impact time-to-market for new devices and services. It will also affect software quality, increasing the likelihood of device returns and increasing support costs for service providers.

Table of contents

Executive summary

In a nutshell
Key messages

Limitations of Moore’s Law

Symmetric multi-processing is the way forward

SMP requires a different approach to software

From serial execution to parallel programming
Multi-cores versus many-cores
Multiple cores create their own limitations

The benefits and barriers of SMP

Benefits of using SMP processors
Barriers to using SMP processors

Devices will go multi-core

Customers are demanding higher performance
ARM is driving embedded SMP adoption
Operating system support for SMP is on its way

Recommendations

Service providers
Handset manufacturers
OS vendors
Application vendors

Table of figures

Figure 1 Simplified illustration of SMP architecture
Figure 2 Amdahl’s Law