Multi-Processing (MP) and Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP)

• Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP)

  • More than one general purpose processor
  • Running the same primary system OS
  • Increase available CPU capacity sharing memory/IO resources

• “Symmetric”

  • Refers to memory performance and caching
  • In contrast to NUMA
    • Non-Uniform Memory Access
  • In practice
    • Amd64 NUMA, dual core, etc.
    • Intel HTT, dual core, etc.