Global Queue News Today

Multicore CPUs have to give user programs a way to synchronize between different cores, and ensure a coherent view of memory. A write from one core has to be made visible to others, even though each core has private caches. Cache coherency protocols like MESI, MESIF, or MOESI help make sure this happens. They're typically…

Processor companies typically iterate off proven designs, and for good reason. Changing too many things at once introduces a lot of risk. A lot of changing parts makes it hard to get a good picture of overall performance, so it also makes tuning difficult. Pentium 4 and Bulldozer made clean breaks from prior architectures, and…