MPSoCs

MPSoC stands for multiprocessor system-on-chip. It is an integrated circuit that combines two or more processor cores on a single chip, together with memory interfaces, I/O, and sometimes specialized accelerators. The goal is to deliver high performance and energy efficiency for parallel workloads while maintaining a compact form factor and reduced memory latency compared to discrete multi-chip configurations. MPSoCs are used across mobile, embedded, and compute-intensive domains.

Architectures may be homogeneous, with multiple identical cores, or heterogeneous, pairing general-purpose CPUs with digital signal processors, GPUs, neural processing units, or other accelerators. Memory can be shared, with coherent caches, or distributed, requiring explicit data movement. Inter-core communication is provided by on-chip interconnects such as buses, crossbars, rings, or more scalable networks-on-chip. Modern MPSoCs increasingly use heterogeneous interconnects and cache coherence protocols to balance bandwidth, latency, and power.

Software support includes real-time operating systems or general-purpose OSes, along with compilers, drivers, and runtime libraries. Scheduling, parallelization, and cache management are critical for performance. Power and thermal management techniques such as dynamic voltage and frequency scaling and clock gating are common. Verification and validation are complex due to the many cores and accelerators and their interactions.

Common applications include smartphones and tablets, automotive infotainment and ADAS systems, embedded IoT devices, network and data-center appliances, and multimedia processing. Examples of MPSoCs appear in ARM-based mobile platforms, as well as automotive and consumer electronics that integrate CPUs with GPUs and dedicated AI accelerators.