It turns out that two-, four-, or eight-core architectures really miss the point. Making a process “a little bit parallel” can provide performance benefits, but only with significant penalties in terms of complexity and usability. Sixteen- or 64-core arrays are a good start, but it is only when the system scales up to hundreds of cores that the true benefits kick in.
Implementing Multi-Core: The Devil Is in the Detail
July 2, 2008