A multiprocessor system is a collection of a number of standard processors put together in an innovative way to improve the performance / speed of computer hardware. The main feature of this architecture is to provide high speed at low cost in comparison to uniprocessor. In a distributed system, the high cost of multiprocessor can be offset by employing them on a computationally intensive task by making it compute server. The multiprocessor system is generally characterised by - increased system throughput and application speedup - parallel processing.
Throughput can be improved, in a time-sharing environment, by executing a number of unrelated user processor on different processors in parallel. As a result a large number of different tasks can be completed in a unit of time without explicit user direction. On the other hand application speedup is possible by creating a multiple processor scheduled to work on different processors.
The scheduling can be done in two ways:
Multiprocessor operating systems aim to support high performance through multiple CPUs. An important goal is to make the number of CPUs transparent to the application. Achieving such transparency is relatively easy because the communication between different (parts of) applications uses the same primitives as
those in multitasking uni-processor operating systems. The idea is that all communication is done by manipulating data at shared memory locations, and that we only have to protect that data against simultaneous access. Protection is done through synchronization primitives like semaphores and monitors.
Multiprocessing and Processor Coupling: Multiprocessing is a general term for the use of two or more CPUs within a single computer system. There are many variations on this basic theme, and the definition of multiprocessing can vary with context, mostly as a function of how CPUs are defined. The term multiprocessing is sometimes used to refer to the execution of multiple concurrent software processes in a system as opposed to a single process at any one instant. However, the term multiprogramming is more appropriate to describe this concept, which is implemented mostly in software, whereas multiprocessing is more appropriate to describe the use of multiple hardware CPUs. A system can be both multiprocessing and multiprogramming, only one of the two, or neither of the two. Processor Coupling is a type of multiprocessing. Let us see in the next section.
Processor Coupling: Tightly-coupled multiprocessor systems contain multiple CPUs that are connected at the bus level. These CPUs may have access to a central shared memory (SMP), or may participate in a memory hierarchy with both local and shared memory (NUMA). The IBM p690 Regatta is an example of a high end SMP system. Chip
multiprocessors, also known as multi-core computing, involve more than one processor placed on a single chip and can be thought of the most extreme form of tightly-coupled multiprocessing. Mainframe systems with multiple processors are often tightly-coupled.
Loosely-coupled multiprocessor systems often referred to as clusters are based on multiple standalone single or dual processor commodity computers interconnected via a high speed communication system. A Linux Beowulf is an example of a looselycoupled system.
Tightly-coupled systems perform better and are physically smaller than looselycoupled systems, but have historically required greater initial investments and may
depreciate rapidly; nodes in a loosely-coupled system are usually inexpensive commodity computers and can be recycled as independent machines upon retirement from the cluster.
Power consumption is also a consideration. Tightly-coupled systems tend to be much more energy efficient than clusters. This is due to fact that considerable economies can be realised by designing components to work together from the beginning in tightly-coupled systems, whereas loosely-coupled systems use components that were not necessarily intended specifically for use in such systems.
