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->Added how multicore systems were marketed
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== Preface ==
Since multicore systems offered a lot of extra processing power compared to the output of a single core processor, many companies were leaping at the opportunity to gain more power for their servers at the time. To capitalize on this, IBM started development of the first dual-core processor on the market, which became available on the market was the IBM POWER4 in 2001. It became highly successful and gave IBM a very strong foothold in the industry when sold as part of their eServer pSeries server, the IBM Regatta. They iterated more on the POWER series of processors, and in 2010, expanded the number of cores available from 2 to 8 with the release of the POWER7.
[[File:Ibmsystemsmag_POWERchart.jpg|thumb|none|The evolution of IBM POWER series processors <br/>Source: IBM systems magazine, October 2010, page 36]]
While IBM was dominating the market for server CPUs, there was still a hole in the market for integrating multicore into desktop computers. In may of 2015, AMD was the first company to release a dual-core desktop CPU, the Athlon 64 x2. With the cheapest in the line being $500 and the most powerful being $1000, It did not quite match IBM’s “twice the performance for half the cost”. However, they were still another large innovation in the industry by AMD, and a top competitor for the highest power CPU on the market.
MULTI-CORE PROCESSORS — THE NEXT EVOLUTION IN COMPUTING. (n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2020, from http://static.highspeedbackbone.net/pdf/AMD_Athlon_Multi-Core_Processor_Article.pdf
Aase, S. (2010, October). Driving a Powerful Future. IBM Systems Magazine, 34-39.
Barney, B. (2020, November 18). Introduction to Parallel Computing. Retrieved November 18, 2020, from https://computing.llnl.gov/tutorials/parallel_comp/
POWER4. (2020, October 19). Retrieved November 12, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POWER4
Power 4: The First Multi-Core, 1GHz Processor. (2011, August 05). Retrieved December 01, 2020, from https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/power4/
No, J., Choudhary, A., Huang, W., Tafti, D., Resch, M., Gabriel, E., . . . Pressel, D. (n.d.). Parallel Computer. Retrieved November 18, 2020, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/parallel-computer
Wang, W. (n.d.). The Limitations of Instruction-Level Parallelism and Thread-Level Parallelism. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://wwang.github.io/teaching/CS5513_Fall19/lectures/ILP_Limitation.pdf
Wasson, S. (2005, May 09). AMD's Athlon 64 X2 processors. Retrieved December 01, 2020, from https://techreport.com/review/8295/amds-athlon-64-x2-processors/
Cray-1. (2020, November 23). Retrieved December 02, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray-1