Multi-core - a cost-effective choice for medical equipment?

Multi-core processors and software required for the operation of processors can increase the complexity of any embedded system. Some industries, in particular, network technologies, have long used multi-core. But in the medical device market, the situation is somewhat different.

And it is not difficult to understand why. For example, would such complexity not impede or delay the process of obtaining FDA (Food and Drug Administration) certification? Obtaining certification is a very complicated and rather long process, and any new technology that can complicate these tests is rightfully viewed with skepticism.

Still, multi-core is the future of medical devices, with the exception of relatively simple products. This trend has been in other markets, including automotive. The medical services market is likely to follow suit.
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Is it worth bothering the developers of medical equipment? Yes, but not too much. Justin Moon (Justin Moon) argues that the methods needed to test multi-core medical systems are, in fact, all the same proven methods already used by developers for single-core systems. These methods include testing, statistical analysis, fault tree analysis and verification of project compliance with specified requirements. Meanwhile, the OS tools and technologies needed to create, analyze and optimize multi-core applications are in many cases quite perfect.

And of course, we must not forget about the main advantage of multi-core systems: a significant increase in performance (due to parallelism) without a concomitant increase in power consumption and heat dissipation.

Perhaps already enough said. To get first-hand arguments, read Justin 's article “Smart OS strategy makes multi-core cost-effective for medical devices” (Smart OS strategy makes multicore viable for medical devices), which was published by the EE Times in October.