The T1040 is a very flexible device and can be configured to meet many different system application needs. The cores can be configured to be used in either symmetric or asymmetric multiprocessing modes. For example, cores configured in asymmetric multiprocessing mode can be used where each core runs operating systems independently or where each core performs separate tasks. This flexibility enables application developers to assign distinct processing resources to distinct tasks that need guaranteed performance. For example, one or more cores can be used to manage a data plane and the other cores can be used for control plane.