Symmetrical Multiprocessing

Symmetrical Multiprocessing technology enables mobile processors to not only deliver higher
performance, but also meet peak performance demands while staying within mobile power
budgets. A multi-core architecture with SMP is defined by the following characteristics:
• Architecture consists of two or more identical CPU cores.
• All cores share a common system memory and are controlled by a single Operating
system.
• Each CPU is capable of operating independently on different workloads and whenever
possible, is also capable of sharing workloads with the other CPU.
Imagine a mobile phone that has a dual core CPU with SMP support-- if the phone’s navigation
application is running concurrently with a streaming audio application, the OS can assign the
navigation task to one CPU core and the streaming audio task to the second CPU. Another
example is a single multi-threaded application that can benefit from multiple CPUs. The OS can
assign the threads to run on both CPUs concurrently and finish the task faster by sharing the
workload across the two CPUs. Since the workload is split across the two cores, these cores
can run at a reduced speed while achieving excellent performance and also conserving power