Glossary comparison
Multicore vs SMT: what is the difference?
The difference
Simultaneous multithreading lets one core run two or more threads by sharing its execution units. A multicore chip has physically separate cores, and each core may or may not also be multithreaded.
A multicore chip has several complete cores. SMT runs several threads inside one core, sharing its execution resources. Many processors use both at once.
The two terms
Multicore
A design containing several processor cores on one die, sharing memory and interconnect, so that throughput scales with thread count rather than with clock frequency.
SMT
A technique that lets one physical core issue instructions from two or more hardware threads in the same cycle, filling execution slots that a single thread would leave idle on stalls.
Side by side
| Field | Multicore | SMT |
|---|---|---|
| Stands for | Not an abbreviation | Simultaneous Multithreading |
| Type | Term | Acronym |
| Domain | Design & Architecture | Compute & AI Hardware |
| Group | Processor architecture | CPU architecture |