As usual, Tom, you made my case with fewer words and greater clarity. __________________ Michel David Lowe Purcellville, VA
-----Original Message----- From: Computer Guys Announcements and Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tom Piwowar Sent: Monday, April 30, 2007 7:30 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [CGUYS] multi-core CPU's >Net result is that an application designed for multitasking can make great >use of a multiple CPU computer. The reality is that most personal computer >applications were designed to single thread on a single CPU. To answer your >question another way, if the application was designed in anticipation of >multiple hardware CPUs, you can see a significant speed up in throughput. >It all depends on the underlying application design. Wikipedia has a good article on multi-core computing. It rightly points out that there are bottnecks that limit the speed gain of extra cores. For example, if there is a lot of memory access, a dual core will only be 30% faster than a single core. Adding even more cores in this situation will provide little gain. To benefit from multiple cores software has to be written with multiple threads. This is not how software was written in the past so it has to be rewritten for this. And the threads need to be given significant tasks so that the extra cores are kept busy. There is also the risk that this work will be wasted if the manufacturers go back to faster single cores or other methods of boosting speed. I consider multi-core to be primairly a marketing gimmick developed when further attempts to boost clock speed hit a wall. ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
