Adding more cores is desirable to meet growing computing demands, but it could create more challenges for programmers writing code that enables applications to work effectively with multicore chips.

Once upon a time, chip makers made computer chips faster every year by increasing their processing speeds. But lately, the microprocessor industry has run into some fundamental limits to those speeds.

Today’s desktop computers are as powerful as supercomputers were 20 years ago, said computer science professor Joel Adams. And 20 years from now, the average desktop may be as powerful as the ...