Brookwood agreed that the "heavy lifting" for migrating software to multicore environments was completed in the dual-core transition, but he noted that generational fine-tuning will be needed to get optimum performance out of the new processors.

"It will always be dependent on the specific software package," Brookwood said. Virtualization is one example of the ongoing work between third-party software vendors and the chip makers. AMD and Intel have rolled out dual-core, x86 processors with hardware-assisted virtualization features within the past year, he says. Companies such as VMware Inc. and Microsoft Corp. continue to work to optimize their virtualization software to make the most of latest processors.

"The ultimate test is always whether it works for IT professional and makes their applications better," Brookwood said.

Markus Levy, an analyst who serves as president of the Multicore Association and the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium, said an increasing number of applications will require higher-level optimization efforts. In other words, he said, it won't be enough to simply run existing software on next-generation processors with larger available core density.

"Even when Intel goes to 16 cores, there will be a need for additional acceleration technologies," Levy said. "As we add more and more cores, we'll also see that general purpose processors can only do so much for some tasks, and the need for specialized acceleration technology will increase."