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Multicore coding tools on the way from Accenture

Steve Ranger silicon.com

Published: 07 Apr 2006 16:40 BST

Companies have been warned about the disruption that could be caused by the need to rewrite legacy code to take full advantage of the move to multicore computing.

Martin Illsley, director of research at Accenture Technology Labs, told ZDNet UK sister site silicon.com: "You can't run your old code and expect it to run faster. There's a lot of very old code out there so there will be quite a disruption to legacy code to take advantage of multicore architecture."

Mike Redding, director of development at the labs, added: "What we are working on is a diagnostic to say [whether] there is a concern for this piece of code and how important is it. We are researching how to identify the code, to put a price on the cost-benefit of switching."

Redding said that as their legacy code ages, companies will have to chose between the cost of more hardware and the cost of modifying the code.

"We are trying to identify which code has the business case," he said.

But he added: "It's not a looming crisis like Y2K — it's not going to be a Y2K bonanza. There's going to be good steady work."