Extensible markup language (XML) performance optimization on a multi-core central processing unit (CPU) through core assignment

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to XML schema validation and provide a method, system and computer program product for optimized XML schema validation and XML document parsing. In one embodiment, an XML data processing system can include shared memory; an XML co-processing proxy comprising program code enabled to receive at least one of XML document schema validation and XML document parsing requests from client applications, and at least one XML processing element coupled to the shared memory. In particular, the XML processing element can be configured to perform the at least one of the XML schema validation and XML document parsing on XML documents provided by the XML co-processing proxy. The XML processing element further can be configured to place results of XML schema validation or the XML document parsing in the shared memory.