CONFIGURING PLURAL CORES TO PERFORM AN INSTRUCTION HAVING A MULTI-CORE CHARACTERISTIC

A processor having multiple cores coordinates functions performed on the cores to automatically, dynamically and repeatedly reconfigure the cores for optimal performance based on characteristics of currently executing software. A core running a thread detects a multi-core characteristic of the thread and assigns one or more other cores to the thread to dynamically combine the cores into what functionally amounts to a common core for more efficient execution of the thread.