For decades, avionics engineers relied on single-core processors as the backbone of flight-critical systems. Deterministic, well-understood, and straightforward to certify, they defined an era. That era is ending. Multi-core processors — long viewed with caution in aviation — are now at the center of nearly every new avionics design conversation, from display systems to autonomous flight. To understand what is driving the shift, what obstacles remain, and where the technology is heading, Aerospace Innovations spoke with Gary Gilliland, Vice President of Marketing at DDC-I, a company that has been at the intersection of real-time operating systems and avionics certification for decades.