Software by Lockheed Martin will allow legacy applications to take advantage of multicore processors, it said today.

The firm said that running legacy software on multicore processors may actually slow down and degrade performance. But its tool, Perseus, auto-designs different parts of the program to run on separate cores, as well as optimising the software for power consumption.

Lockheed Martin claims that Perseus has yielded up to 20% savings in power and 20% reduction in execution time. Perseus was developed in 2007 by the firm's advanced technology laboratories, in conjunction with Drexel University.  X