How does multi-core processing improve performance for multi-threaded applications?

How does multi-core processing improve performance for multi-threaded applications?

• A. More cores reduce power usage and slow performance for all tasks.
• B. Multi-core processing only benefits single-threaded applications.
• C. Additional cores increase latency due to context switching.
• D. Multiple cores can execute separate threads in parallel, increasing throughput and responsiveness for parallelizable tasks.

Answer: (D)

Multi-core processing lets separate threads run simultaneously on different cores, which is what boosts performance when a task can be split into parallel work. By assigning different parts of a program to different cores, the system can complete more work in the same amount of time, improving overall throughput. It also helps keep interactive programs responsive because the user interface thread can run on one core while heavy background work runs on another. If the workload isn’t parallelizable, adding cores won’t help much and can add coordination overhead. While more cores can increase total power use, they don’t inherently speed up a single-threaded task, which is limited by the speed of one core. Context-switching overhead is reduced when more cores are available to run threads in parallel, so latency for parallelizable tasks tends to improve rather than worsen.

Multi-core processing lets separate threads run simultaneously on different cores, which is what boosts performance when a task can be split into parallel work. By assigning different parts of a program to different cores, the system can complete more work in the same amount of time, improving overall throughput. It also helps keep interactive programs responsive because the user interface thread can run on one core while heavy background work runs on another. If the workload isn’t parallelizable, adding cores won’t help much and can add coordination overhead. While more cores can increase total power use, they don’t inherently speed up a single-threaded task, which is limited by the speed of one core. Context-switching overhead is reduced when more cores are available to run threads in parallel, so latency for parallelizable tasks tends to improve rather than worsen.