Specifications

9
Why are we going to dual-core
processors? One of the main reasons is
heat. The higher a processor’s clock
speed, the more heat it produces. The
3.6 GHz Pentium 4 did have heat
problems. Of course what we have been
doing is just put more than one processor
on a motherboard to increase
performance beyond what you can get
with a single processor (The general
rule has been that adding a second
processor improves computer speed by
60% over a single processor of the same
speed). However, to make this more
cost effective, use less space, and reduce
power requirements, putting two
processors together on one chip is better.
This is especially true in the desktop
and notebook markets. As we move to
high-definition TV resolution video on
computers the need for the average
computer to have very high processing
speed will appear, leading to dual-core
processor computers being dominant a
few years from now. But can you
upgrade your current system to a dual-
core processor? If you have an AMD
socket 939 motherboard you can
upgrade to an AMD Athlon 64 dual-
core processor with only a BIOS
upgrade. The same is true for AMD
Opteron socket 940 motherboards for
Opteron dual-core processors. Intel said
last fall that some Intel LGA 775
motherboards would be able to use their
dual-core processors, called “Pentium
D,” but they now say the first generation
of them will have to use a modified
LGA 775 socket. This of course means
getting a new motherboard.
For an application program to take
advantage of multiprocessor systems,
both the operating system and the
particular application you are running
must have the ability to use more than
one processor (multi-threaded program).
If the operating system is able to take
advantage of more than one processor,
but the applications you are running are
not, you may get different applications
running on different processors, but
each will only use one processor.
Windows 98 & ME are designed for
only one processor, so they can only
use one processor even though there
are two processors on one chip, real or
virtual. Windows XP Home can use
only one processor chip, but up to two
processors on that chip. Windows XP
Professional is designed to use up to 2
processor chips and up to 2 processors
on each chip. Novell’s SUSE Linux is
already ready for dual core processors,
and Red Hat Linux soon will be. Both
are multi-threaded and multi-processor
chip operating systems.
Most current multi-threaded
application programs are mid-high end
scientific, engineering, CAD/CAM, and
digital content creation programs. This
includes video editing and 2D and 3D
animation and image creation/editing
programs. However there are some
home applications that already have this
multi-threading capability, such as the
Adobe Premiere Elements video-editing
program. The first programs for the
home user to go multi-threading should
be content creation/editing, multimedia,
and games. There seems to be an
expectation by Intel that the transition
over to most programs being multi-
threaded will be three years from now.
However, some software companies
base the licensing fees of some or all of
their programs on the number of
processors using the program. The
question then becomes: will software
companies start charging licensing fees
per processor core, instead of the current