Is multi-core a cost-effective choice for medical equipment?

Multi-core processors and the software needed to run processors can increase the complexity of any embedded system. Some industries, in particular network technology, have long been using multi-core technology. But in the medical device market, the situation is somewhat different.

And it’s easy to understand why. For example, would such a difficulty hinder or delay the process of obtaining FDA certification (Food and Drug Administration)? Obtaining certification is a very complex and rather long process, and any new technology that can complicate these tests is rightly considered with skepticism.

And yet, multi-core is the way of the future for medical devices, with the exception of relatively simple products. This trend was in other markets, including the automotive. The health care market is likely to follow suit.

Is the medical device developer worried? Yes, but not too much. Justin Moon claims that the methods needed to test multi-core medical systems are essentially the same proven methods already used by developers for single-core systems. These methods include testing, statistical analysis, analysis of the fault tree and verification of compliance of the project with the specified requirements. Meanwhile, the tools and technologies of the OS necessary to create, analyze and optimize applications that support multicore 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 productivity (due to parallelism) without a concomitant increase in power consumption and heat dissipation.

Perhaps enough has already been said. To get first-hand arguments, read Justin 's article, Smart OS strategy makes multicore viable for medical devices, published by EE Times in October.