When one comes up against an unbreakable barrier, what do you do? Symmetrical multiprocessing is a classic example of handling the problem by going around the barrier rather than trying to break through it. The technological barrier, in this case, is the computer processor. Although CPU technology is constantly evolving, becoming faster and more powerful, it’s not growing fast enough to keep up with our computing needs. If one can’t break through it, how does one go around it? The answer is to add a second processor, or a third, or ten, or a hundred. Symmetrical multiprocessing is the computer architecture that allows a computer to divide different tasks among multiple processors working in unison.
In symmetric multiprocessing, or SMP, two or more processors act independently, but share the share the memory bank. When using processors that have more than one core, each core acts as a separate processor. Each processor (or core) can be assigned to any process or thread, and can pass the tasks back and forth between the different processors for load balancing. SMP architecture is most useful for systems running multiple programs simultaneously, because each program can be assigned its own dedicated processor.
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