Multi-core is a tick in the box in today’s world. You’ll find processors with multiple cores on servers and smart phones – relevant in the case of Java thanks to the success of Google’s Android operating system that uses the Dalvik JVM.
It’s something all devs must confront. C++ aficionado Herb Sutter has been saying since 2005 that devs need to write apps that are multi-threaded to take advantage of the speed and performance of multiple cores rather than relying on chip makers to boost the a single processor’s clock speed or its cache.