Multi-core CPUs are finding their way into more than just personal computers. Renesas Technology announced the latest additions to their SuperH line of microcontrollers on Monday, which will bring dual-core technology to consumer products and industrial equipment, as well as car audio and navigation systems.
Renesas introduced the multi-core design after hitting the same wall in performance that other CPU manufacturers were encountering: the laws of physics. The traditional approach of packing more and more process nodes onto chips to make them smaller and faster started producing unsavory results, like leakage current. The multi-core solution was a way to bypass this problem, and offers other benefits as well, such as being able to run different operating systems simultaneously on different cores.
