Measuring Multicore Performance

As an astute reader of computer, you probably don\´t need the detailed explanation of why most of the industry has so markedly shifted to multi-core technology. But in all honesty, many embedded system designers are still struggling to determine whether multicore really buys them anything in terms of performance. Resolving this quandary requires a thorough understanding of the target application, the characteristics of multicore processors that could be used, and the amount of time that must be invested to make the transition. Having reliable performance information provides a good starting point for analyzing these factors, but "reliable" is the operative word. In other words, it\´s imperative to pick the right types of benchmarks to accurately predict the performance of the multicore processor once it\´s in the final product.