Two companies are gearing up new capabilities that can help software automatically take advantage of today's multicore processors. The MathWorks has built new parallel processing techniques into its flagship MatLab environment, and startup Exludus Technologies, Inc. (Montreal) is preparing an enhanced release of its scheduling middleware for multicore X86 servers. The efforts mark two small steps on the way toward tackling the grand challenge in computing today: Creating an easy-to-use approach for software to fully use the many cores and threads supported on the latest microprocessors.