SMP enables the use of multiple processors through a single operating system instance. The operating system handles most of the complexity of managing multiple processors, caches, peripheral interrupts, and load balancing.
The APU in the Versal devices contains two homogeneous cache coherent Arm Cortex®-A72 processors that support SMP mode of operation using an OS, such as Linux or VxWorks®. Xilinx and its partners provide numerous operating systems that make it easy to leverage SMP in the APU. The following figure shows an example of Linux SMP with multiple applications running on a single OS.
This might not be the best mode of operation when there are hard, real-time requirements because it ignores Linux application core affinity, which must be available to developers with the existing Xilinx software.