The Multicore Association, a neutral forum for vendors who are interested in, working with, and/or proliferating multicore-related products such as multicore network processors, announced that it has expanded its cooperate-level working-group membership. Some of its newest members include: NetLogic Microsystems, Netronome Systems, OneAccess, RadiSys (News - Alert), Sage Electronic Engineering, and UltraSoC Technologies. The forum’s new university level members are Technikum Wien and University of Tsukuba.

NetLogic Microsystems is a fabless semiconductor company that deals in intelligent semiconductor solutions that are powering next-generation Internet networks. Netronome Systems supplies highly programmable semiconductor products used for intelligent flow processing in network and communications devices. OneAccess builds multi-service routers and carrier Ethernet access devices. RadiSys provides hardware and software platforms for next generation IP-based networks. Sage Electronic Engineering deals in debug tools, software solutions and custom engineering services for AMD (News - Alert) x86 processors and chipsets. And UltraSoC Technologies is an independent provider of System-on-Chip (SoC) infrastructures.   

The association asserted that these new members would take its total membership to 33 corporate and seven university members, an expansion that showcases the critical need for standards in support of multicore design and development. Also, the diversity of these new members reflects the breadth and scope of the multicore ecosystem and will do much to strengthen the association's efforts for developing standards and best practices that facilitate multicore network processor implementations.

A multi-core network processor is defined as an integrated circuit (IC) to which two or more processors have been attached for enhanced performance, reduced power consumption, and more efficient simultaneous processing of multiple tasks. Lately, this unique architecture is being widely adopted by major system developers seeking higher performance capabilities and lower power consumption. The Multicore Association (News - Alert) on its part is working with developers to enable the widespread adoption of multicore network processor implementations by charting out implementation standards and rules about how they have to be utilized and programmed.

The Multicore Association provides three levels of membership, with Executive Board, Working Group, and University members. By being in the executive board, members can ascertain the overall direction of the organization and working group members are eligible to work on any of the working groups. University members are allowed access to Multicore Association's ongoing development work.