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Ixiasoft
5.1.2.3. Using Symmetrical vs. Asymmetrical Multiprocessing (SMP vs. AMP) Modes
The Dual Core ARM Cortex®-A9 MPCore* in the Cyclone® V / Arria® V HPS can support both Symmetrical Multi-processing (SMP) and Asymmetrical Multi-processing (AMP) configuration modes.
In SMP mode, a single OS instance controls both cores. The SMP configuration is supported by a wide variety of operating system manufacturers and is the most common and straightforward configuration mode for multiprocessing.
Commercially developed operating systems offer features that take full advantage of the CPU cores resources and use them in an efficient manner resulting in optimum performance and ease of use. For instance, SMP enabled operating systems offer the option of setting processor affinity. This means that each task/thread can be assigned to run on a specific core. This feature allows the software developer to better control the workload distribution for each Cortex®-A9 core and making the system more responsive as an alternative to AMP.
GUIDELINE: Familiarize yourself with the performance and optimizations available in commercial operating systems to see if an SMP-enabled OS or RTOS meets your performance and real-time requirements.
In the AMP (Asymmetrical Multi-Processing) configuration, two different operating systems or two instances of a single operating system run on the two cores. The two operating systems have no inherent knowledge of how they share CPU resources. To ensure efficient use of MPU subsystem resources in this environment, you must deal with several complex issues when designing your system.