NEC Develops Multiprocessor Dynamic-Control Technology
NEC has succeeded in the development of multiprocessor dynamic-control technology, which enables embedded devices, such as mobile phones, digital home electronics and automotive information devices, to coordinate with each other through open networks, such as the Internet.
NEC's multiprocessor dynamic-control technology, which can dynamically allocate some of a multiprocessor's processors to device coordination, is a platform technology that will achieve highly-scalable performance for device coordination and high security for embedded systems in the future.
Once this technology is realized, users are expected to benefit from new services based on device coordination, such as an anti-crime service that is linked with a child's mobile phone and a town's monitoring cameras, an auto-payment service that coordinates with customers' information terminals and restaurants' point-of-sales devices, and a driver-assist service that coordinates with drive recorders and car navigation systems.
The number of processors for device coordination can be changed freely in response to the required performance without fixed allocation of all processors to pre-installed software. This enables some processors to be dynamically switched for either coordination of other embedded devices or the execution of pre-installed software.
Pre-installed software can be protected from device driver bugs or attacks of malicious software during device coordination operation on open networks as a hardware monitor blocks the malicious access issued to memory or I/Os for device coordination. Due to the hardware monitor, the performance overhead of pre-installed software is reduced to almost nothing as compared with software-based conventional systems.
In recent years, embedded devices, such as mobile phones, digital home electronics and automotive information devices, have had to enable increasingly flexible coordination with other embedded devices through open networks in order to provide more convenient services for users. This has lead to a greater need for embedded devices to satisfy highly scalable performance and high security requirements for device coordination. NEC's multiprocessor dynamic-control technology allows processors contained in an embedded device to be freely allocated to both pre-installed software and device coordination, enabling secure information devices that allow flexible coordination with embedded devices.
NEC expects its multiprocessor dynamic-control technology will contribute to the enhanced coordination of embedded devices in a ubiquitous networked society.
