In Figure 1.7, we show a dual-core design with two cores on the same
chip. In this design, each core has its own register set as well as its own local
cache. Other designs might use a shared cache or a combination of local and
shared caches. Aside from architectural considerations, such as cache,memory,
and bus contention, these multicore CPUs appear to the operating system as
N standard processors. This characteristic puts pressure on operating system
designers—and application programmers—to make use of those processing
cores.