Glossary
- asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP)
- A separate OS, or a separate instantiation of the same OS, runs on each CPU.
- bound multiprocessing (BMP)
- A single instantiation of an OS manages all CPUs simultaneously, but you can lock individual applications or threads to a specific CPU.
- discrete (or traditional) multiprocessor system
- A system that has separate physical processors hooked up in multiprocessing mode over a board-level bus.
- hard thread affinity
- A user-specified binding of a thread to a set of processors, done by means of a runmask. Contrast soft thread affinity.
- inherit mask
- A bitmask that specifies which processors a thread's children can run on. Contrast runmask.
- multicore system
- A chip that has one physical processor with multiple CPUs interconnected over a chip-level bus.
- runmask
- A bitmask that indicates which processors a thread can run on. Contrast inherit mask.
- soft thread affinity
- The scheme whereby the microkernel tries to dispatch a thread to the processor where it last ran, in an attempt to reduce thread migration from one processor to another, which can affect cache performance. Contrast hard thread affinity.
- symmetric multiprocessing (SMP)
- A single instantiation of an OS manages all CPUs simultaneously, and applications can float to any of them.